


BurdenTale

by Skribsfics



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fontcest, Gen, I don't know its my first fic here, I'll add more tags later, Manipulation, Multi, Soul Sex, Underfell, later abuse, most pairings are really brief and light mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-05-16 16:10:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5832046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skribsfics/pseuds/Skribsfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Papyrus discovers a glitch in the world, leading him to take San's place.</p><p>Who knew the burden could be so great</p><p> </p>
            </blockquote>





	1. oh its the first chapter

**Author's Note:**

> okay haha it's my first fic here, I hope you enjoy it

 

Nothing in anything was perfect.

 

Not even in this world.

 

There was always a flaw.

 

So when a small glitch appeared between the cracks of snow on the ground, papyrus didn’t hesitate in slipping his arm through, letting himself sink in to the black abyss until it swallowed him up. For a moment, Papyrus was blind, unable to see anything around him. Or simply it was too dark to see anything. In a moment’s time as his patience began to wane thin, light started to circle around him; OUT of him as a matter of fact.

 

“OH!”

 

It was bright white, swirling around his body like a shield. Slowly, light made out of words integrated all around him. Words like ‘mercy’, ‘kindness’, ‘spaghetti’, and ‘compassion’. Papyrus slipped his hands through the words of light, his hands passing by them like sand. He couldn’t help but giggle. It made him feel light and happy. As if his voice had turned a switch, lights started to appear one by one, and soon papyrus found himself surrounded by a sea of churning words.

 

 “WOWIE” Papyrus breathless found himself slowly moving amongst the floating items in the black abyss.  “NOW THIS IS RATHER UNUSUAL. I MUST TELL SANS ABOUT THIS!”

 

He eyed a spaghetti with words ‘delicious’, ‘full of tomatoes’ and ‘appetizing’ surround it while a tree to his right had the words ‘tall’, ‘strong’, and ‘immobile’, other items also being engulfed with words that described them the best in a furious swirl.

 

The tall skeleton continued to wander, reading every description and letting out small ‘nyeh heh hehs’ upon reading the description of a lesser dog. It wasn’t only inanimate objects that filled the black space, but also monsters. Papyrus saw Undyne floating next to Alphys, her eyes closed and her head hung down as if she was fast asleep while standing up. Finding that he couldn’t quite run, the tall skeleton pushed himself through the air to come to Undyne, waving his arm about in excitement.

 

“UNDYNE! WOWIE HOW DID YOU GET HERE!”

 

She didn’t respond. Papyrus frowned. He waved his hand around Undyne and after a full ten minute investigation (which involved poking and yelling) Papyrus came to a clever conclusion to his predicament.

 

“AH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS FINALLY UNDERSTANDS!” He declared at no one, hands on hips.

 

This was a very strange dream! What else could it be? He must have fallen asleep while walking! He quietly scolded himself for being such a ‘lazybone’. Papyrus groaned. Perhaps Sans was rubbing off on him. Papyrus looked down at the words around Undyne, interested in what they said.

 

Loyal. Ferocious. Brave. Passionate. Ambitious. Undying.

 

Papyrus nodded approvingly. The words that circled the captain of the royal guard were too quick for him to read all, but so far everything seemed to be pretty in place.

As intriguing and highly unusual his situation was, after reading all the words around each item Papyrus found himself getting bored fast as no puzzles meant no interest for him. He slowly made his way to the crack he came from, but found himself stop short.

 

There was Sans in the distance.

 

Surrounded by more words than any others.

 

They glowed dimly; some appearing to shiver and shake as they slowly moved around the small skeleton, quivering as if they were going to fall apart. They guarded him with layers and layers of words, papyrus could hardly reach him.

 

“SANS?” papyrus asked aloud, approaching the figure of his brother. Catching  a glimpse of some of the words, Papyrus became rather confused.

 

_Pain_

_Anger_

_Sadness_

_Death_

_Tired_

_Reset Memories_

_Burdened_

 

He never would have thought to attribute such words with his brother. Was Sans… was sans unhappy? The skeleton tried to reassure that this was only a dream, but he felt himself shake softly in guilt. He hadn’t noticed. He hadn’t noticed his own brother in pain as he obliviously spent his days yelling at him for being lazy. Papyrus shook his head.

 

“N-NYEH! DO NOT FEAR BROTHER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL FIX IT FOR YOU!”

 

And without a second thought, Papyrus reached in and grabbed one of the words and yanked it out, replacing it with his own.

 

Papyrus smiled.

 

In his bright circle of words was a single word that glowed in a dim toxic light.

 

In San’s line of dim words was a single word that shone brighter than anything else.

 

_Burdened_

 

_Happiness_

 

Papyrus smiled his toothy grin in triumph, resting his hands on his hips as he posed victoriously.

 

“YES! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOLVED THE PUZZLE! BROTHER, I SHALL SEE TO YOUR SMILE LATER!”

 

And without further questioning, Papyrus left the void in a leap, as if it was just another part of life’s great journey. With a little struggle, Papyrus pushed himself out, landing ungracefully on the snow. He looked around.

 

“I AWAKEN!”

 

Quickly getting up and dusting himself (SNOWsting himself aye?) Papyrus marched to his brother’s post, eager to see the outcome of his great work.

 

 The crack closed up, slowly, and sunk in itself as if it never existed from the start. Inside, Papyrus’s body faded into view next to his brother. Slowly, the toxic word began to spread.

 

 *

 

Sans rested his head on his arms, looking out into the empty snow and trees. He knew there was no point in being active, being up and doing his ‘job’. He’d seen this scenario too many times to know that nothing happened. Papyrus would be on his way to lecture him soon and later he’d be going to Grillby’ s for the monthly special menu that involved quite the dose of ketchup, and before you know it, it would be the next day and the process would repeat until the human came. He gritted his teeth, burrowing himself further into his jacket. Another reset, another scene to play out, another fresh memory of the same old. Dead monsters, dead Undyne, dead Asgore, dead Toriel, dead… dead Papyrus.

 

With a choked sigh, Sans fell asleep.

 

_Hello Sans_

 

Sans’s eyes shot open, one glowing blue as its flames burst into view. He knew that voice.

 

_It’s good to see you again_

 

 Sans turned, the black mess of mass struggling to stay upright as it dribbled all over the …. Sans wasn’t quite sure. He felt familiarity in his surroundings, the pitch black environment not surprising him one bit.

 

“I can’t say I feel same Gaster.” Sans drawled out, smiling his infamous grin.

 

If sans had known, better, it would have appeared as if Gaster had chuckled. The sound was grating, like a heaving metal machine groaning to move.

 

_It’s so good to see you’re the same as always_

 

“Hey, these bones aint growing any time soon” Sans shrugged in comedic timing, slipping his hands back into his pockets. Dropping the act, he glared at Gaster. “Why am I here Gaster.”

 

_You’re sitting in your sentry post, sleeping_

 

“This is a dream?”

 

_It’s the only way I can talk to you_

 

“I should sleep less.”

 

There it was again, another broken laugh that anyone else could have easily mistaken as the sound of death itself. Gaster covered his smile with one hand, letting out a small giggle.

 

_Relax. This may the last time you see me_

 

Sans raised his eyebrow – well – where his eyebrow would have been.

 

_Your burden is gone. You’re free._

 

And with that, Gaster slowly faded away, leaving Sans standing there. Gaster let out a crooked smile before the last of him was gone

 

_What a lovely brother you have, Sans. Lucky you._

_*_

 

Sans woke up to a Papyrus looking brighter than ever, standing tall and proud with hands on hips. Despite his dream, Sans couldn’t help but immediately smile. Seeing his brother made himself feel… better. Even though Papyrus’s voice was too loud for his own good.

 

“SANS! HOW DO YOU FEEL?” Papyrus appeared more excited than usual, as if his answer was the most eventful thing that could possibly happen in  his life. Sans pondered for a moment, before his automatic answer popped up.

 

“Well I was going tibia-sleep but you woke me up.” He chuckled as Papyrus erupted in a roar of “SANS OH MY GOD.” Sans paused. Strange. He felt…

Papyrus reverted his full attention back to Sans, his sockets showering him in bullets of attention.

 

“ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T FEEL ANYTHING ELSE?”

 

Sans shrugged, unsure if he SHOULD be feeling something.

 

Papyrus appeared deflated, but puffed back up again. “WELL, IF YOU DO EVER FEEL DOWN, DO NOT FORGET YOU HAVE THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO AID YOU IN YOUR NEED! REMEMBER THAT.”

His last words came out more quiet, papyrus looking at his brother with pleading eyes. Sans didn’t hesitate to throw back a smile. Of course he would never tell him, but the sentiment was sweet enough to light up his core.

 

“You know it bro.”

 


	2. another wormhole down we go!

The changes were subtle, but it was there.

 

When nights came, Sans slept faster then he should have, and woke up feeling better than ever, slowly, the world felt different. His night terrors were gone. The snow felt soft, and he silenced a giggle when he stomped into them. The lights looked brighter and colors never looked so vibrant. He could eat it all up. Although the fear that it would all slip away the next day remained, when he woke up, it was still there. Still there and somehow, he knew it would never leave. He didn’t feel so tired anymore. Every monster he talked to filled him up with energy and every waking moment felt so different, Sans didn’t even want to sleep anymore. He was more active, more vocal, more loud. Sure he was still him in all he was; full of puns and bad to the bone. But life suddenly felt… well, to put it into better words; happier.

 

Sans opened his eyes. Subconsciously he brought his skeletal hands to his face and stared. _It’s me. I'm still me. And I'm here._ Sans slowly got up, rotating his joints. He slipped into his slippers and started out the door. _I’m still here and I’m me._ Sans got out and slowly made his way to the kitchen, humming.

 

The changes were very subtle, to the point even Papyrus didn’t notice. Of course he immediately knew when Sans was more open, sleeping less, lying less, and being generally a much happier monster. He saw it on day one and he jumped in glee. They would do so many things together! They’d make more snowmen, go to different restaurants in the underground, have sleepovers where Sans wouldn’t actually be asleep the whole time and maybe even a spaghetti picnic! Papyrus was overjoyed. But as the first happy days went on, Papyrus was unaware of his own subtle changes. He didn’t see how less enthusiastic he was when he found out a couple of Snowdrakes had a new son, or how Undyne wanted to try a new recipe other than spaghetti, or how Sans wanted to actually go flower picking with him (although finding a flower in Snowdin was near to impossible.)

 

He had only noticed his changes when he was making a new puzzle for a future human to fall into. He felt himself just drop the pieces and stare blankly at them for a moment. It was as if a switch had been turned on him. He stopped stock still, confused.

 

“Papyrus! It’s getting late!”

 

“NYEH?”

 

He blinked. What was he doing again? For some reason, Papyrus felt lost, as if time had mingled with one another. He gathered the pieces and stored them back into his sentry post, running back to his brother.

 

When the first night terror hit, Papyrus was confused to say the least. In a golden room where the air was warm, he stood opposite of a human. Then there was blood and a chilling smile that burned itself into Papyrus’s skull as the blade swung down cutting his spine in two. He had woken up with a jolt, scream still running in his mind as he pushed away in thin air. Sans bolted into his room, fright gracing his skeletal features as he practically jumped on the bed, grabbing Papyrus by the face and staring into his sockets.

 

“Papyrus! What happened??”

 

Papyrus shuddered, gasping for air. His jaws moved, but he found that he couldn’t quite formulate the words to explain. He didn’t want to tell Sans. He didn’t have to know. But that didn’t stop the tears that flowed out. Sans stared on, feeling helpless. Was this how Papyrus felt whenever he had a nightmare? Did he also feel terrified that something was wrong, and even worse, knew when he wasn’t saying anything? Papyrus always told him what was wrong, from the small things like being unable to find his right glove to the big things like feeling his puzzles weren’t good enough. So to see his little brother avert his teary eyes and not say anything despite the scream that woke him up, it was an experience he had never encountered in previous timelines.

 

Sans pulled the crying skeleton close, letting him melt into his arms as his shoulders shuddered, and the long limbs of his brother cradling him, in need of comfort.

 

“You’re okay Pap, you’re okay… do you want to talk about it?”

 

Papyrus continued to hold on to his brother. He shook his head. It was his responsibility. It was time for Sans to be happy.

 

*

 

Getting out of bed had suddenly become a challenge.

 

After his first nightmare, the terrors hadn’t stopped. It was the same dream; golden halls and bloody knives, the sensation of a knife cutting through him and his voice becoming hoarse from screaming. Every time he woke, Sans was there, his eyes wide and worried, grabbing his face in an attempt to get him out of sleep. By the time it happened for the fifth time, Papyrus had trained himself to be quiet. When he awoke once again, he clamped his hands over his mouth, stifling a scream. It came out in a small whimper. With shaky breaths and clammy bones, he forced himself to go back to sleep.

 

Papyrus groaned, stretching his joints until they gave a satisfying click. He looked out the window, the sun already up. Tenth. He had counted. The tenth day since the nightmares began. He of course didn’t like them one bit, but he couldn’t tell sans about it. It was his responsibility. It was his dream. It… it wasn’t real.

 

Getting dressed in his battle body armor, Papyrus made his way into the kitchen to make spaghetti. It was one of the many things that always succeeded in cheering him up. Didn’t make a new friend today? Spaghetti. Failed a particular puzzle? Spaghetti. Sans made ten awful puns in less than 5 seconds? Spaghetti.

 

Getting the tomatoes out, Papyrus followed Undyne’s instructions and smashed his raised fist to obliterate the vegetable.

 

A golden room.

 

Papyrus blinked, startled. Wasn’t he just –

 

“Well this is new.”

 

Papyrus turned. It was a… a thing. A monster? A human? Papyrus couldn’t tell.

 

It stood at the end of the hall, hands gracing a knife. Its eyes glowed red in the shade of the large pillars. It smiled, slowly walking closer, its grin amused.

 

“Papyrus…?”

 

Papyrus turned. Sans stared at him wide eyed, his left eye glowing bright blue.

 

“SANS?”

 

“B-bro?”

 

Immediately sans flung himself to him, tackling him and holding tight. Papyrus fell back in a gasp, his arms instinctively wrapping his brother up.

 

“S- SANS! WHATS GOING ON? WHATS THE MATTER?”

 

He didn’t reply, sobbing quietly into the crook of his neck. Papyrus tried to reassure him, patting his back when he realized Sans was wearing his long cape as a makeshift scarf.

 

“SANS..? WHY ARE YOU..”

 

“This is just too fucking perfect.”

 

The skeletons quickly twisted to see… IT… giggle. The high pitch laugh pierced and echoed through the hall. Sans quickly stood up, pushing papyrus behind him. It waved its arm.

 

“Oh my god. This is just so fucking perfect. I couldn’t ask anything better! Two brothers once again reunited by timeline anomalies. Well isn’t this just so sweet? And you know what’s even better?”

 

 It raised the blade to its face.

 

“Watching your brother die all over again!”

 

It rushed forward. Sans raised his hands, Gaster blasters forming above him. Mouth agape, the roar of the laser cannons deafened Papyrus. In the smoke and the debris, Papyrus turned to his older brother in confusion and fear.

 

“SANS? WHATS GOING ON?”

 

Sans turned to look at him, a wry grin greeting him. “It’s okay bro. I got this.”

 

“You sure do.”

 

Papyrus didn’t know how time worked, but it seemed that it slowed down when it happened. It was behind Sans, grin twisted and manic as blade touched bone. He could see how it went through him, like paper, slowly cutting as Papyrus stood still in the slow space. San’s eyes widened, body trying to twist away but failing. Papyrus moved and his mind screamed, urging time to stop, to reverse, to let him do SOMETHING. It opened its mouth and what sounded like a gurgled laughter came out, the knife swinging again. Another cut. Then another. Like a paper shredder, Sans collapsed in a heap of red, pieces of him disjointed and sticking out while Papyrus finally reached him and cradled his broken body in his arms.

 

“Sans….? Sans…?”

 

his voice was quiet, fingers trembling in a futile attempt to wipe the blood away. Was this blood? Was it called blood? Why was it so red? Why was it spreading so fast? The dark liquid turned into a blur, tears filling up his vision and running down his cheekbones. He didn’t even look up when the killer of his brother walked up to him, only flinching when a hand rested on his skull.

 

“Poor Papyrus… you’ve taken quite the responsibility haven’t you?”

 

Papyrus slowly looked up, only to have the bloody blade by his neck.

 

“Curiosity killed the cat you know.”

 

The knife plunged in. Papyrus choked. He felt himself roll back into a black hole, sans slipping from his grip as he fell. Blood filled up his magic and he gurgled, eyes slowly closing. Was he dying? Was this the end? Was it…

 

“PAPYRUS”

 

His eyes fluttered open. He was standing in the middle of the kitchen once more staring at the floor which was covered in mashed tomatoes. He looked up to see Sans, one eye flaring blue, body in a defensive stance. “Papyrus?”

 

Papyrus strode forward despite Sans questioning looks and embraced him in a tight hug.

 

“Oof! H-hey bro, what’s up? You okay?”

 

Papyrus once again nodded.

 

“What were you doing there? You looked ready to fight. Your eyes were…”

 

Papyrus quickly reached up to his eye. They were flaring orange. He quickly dissipated them, pushing off Sans to give him a broad smile.

 

“I WAS JUST TRYING A NEW TECHNIQUE FROM UNDYNE!”

 

“Smashing tomatoes everywhere?”

 

“EXACTLY!”

 

Sans stared at him for a while, eyes searching. He finally leaned forward and rested his head on Papyrus.

 

“I guess the tomatoes made you see red.”

 

“YES THEY CERTAINLY ARE- SANS OH.”

 

Papyrus looked down at the wide grin of Sans. “GOOD ONE BROTHER.”

 

“Eh. It’s what I do best.”

 

Sans got up, pulling his brother with him. He decided it was best not to tell Papyrus what he saw before and chose a wiser decision to tell him off for making a mess of the kitchen.

 

*

 

It was too early for this.

 

Despite the major changes Sans felt within him, sleeping had been a huge part of his existence, and so of course, he wouldn’t just wake up at the crack of dawn like his brother and the earliest he would even try was much after breakfast. Hey, at least it was better than lunch time. So when sans heard a crash in the kitchen, he wasn’t too surprised.

 

He pulled his pillow over his head and continued to sleep. It was when there was yelling that sans forgot exactly what time it was and had jumped downstairs in a blink of an eye. His body went stock still.

 

Papyrus sat in the kitchen covered in tomatoes. He was slumped over and he wasn’t moving. Sans approached, hand reaching out as he moved to hold his brother.

 

“Papy – “

 

Papyrus looked up slowly, his sockets blank in expression. In a jolt he was up, eyes flaring orange. Sans took a step back, his own eye flaring up. “Papyrus?

”

He looked shocked, face twisted in a grimace and misery. He was shaking. Sans started to panic

 

“PAPYRUS!”

 

And he was awake. Sockets blinking in wonder as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. In a simple stride he approached him and hugged.

 

 *

 

That night after no success in catching a human, Papyrus dreamed. Except it was different. And he gladly accepted the change. He blinked as he slowly felt the control over his limbs come back. In a dark damp room, he was surrounded by mist and fog. He wasn’t sure where he was but it looked awful lot like the forest in Snowdin, so he didn’t mind. Stretching, he started to walk. he hoped this was what some monsters called ‘luna sleep’, the ability to control your own dream.  Mustering up all his will power, he tried to conjure up spaghetti.

 

_Hello._

 

“NYEH!”

 

In a gasp Papyrus turned around. In the shadows of the strange void he stood in, an odd shifting figure of darkness stood. Its body shivered and shook, its white face standing out like a ghost. It was smiling, hands hovering near his chest. It cocked its head to the side and watched him.

 

“Y-YOU’RE NOT A SPAGHETTI…”

 

_How insightful of you. No I am not spaghetti unfortunately. Though I’d imagine it would be nice._

 

It chuckled (was it a chuckle?) and Papyrus beamed up. Oh! Someone else who admired spaghetti! He bounded forward, coming close to his new friend.

 

“I’D SAY SO MYSELF! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALSO ENJOY SPAGHETTI! I AM QUITE THE CHEF IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF.”

 

_Oh? You must show me your culinary skills._

 

“WHY YES! THAT SOUNDS GREAT! LIKE ME! OH BUT… YOU’RE NOT REAL.” Papyrus slumped, realizing he had made friends with his own imagination. It laughed again (was it a laugh?)

 

_Oh papyrus, but I am real. I'm real as you._

 

Papyrus of course looked puzzled. It continued to explain, its mass wobbling in excitement.

 

_Right now you can only talk to me in dreams, but later, sooner or later, we’ll see each other. Until then, come visit me more often. I’ll tell you more of everything you want to know._

 

“W-WAIT! WHAT DO YOU – “

 

And he was gone. Swallowed up by the darkness, he disappeared and Papyrus woke up.

 

 *

 

By the 20th day, the changes were showing like a sore thumb.

 

Sans got up, stretching the sleep out of his bones. He sighed in relief as his joints clicked back into place, rubbing sleep out of his sockets. How long has it been since he actually had a good night’s sleep? He had lost count. No nightmares, no flashbacks. It was just him and the night and he loved it. Slipping his feet in his slippers, he shuffled out, going down the stairs lazily. The Plopping himself on to the couch, he waited for his brother to come out of the kitchen with hands on hips and a disgruntled look.

 

Silence.

 

Sans laid there for a second more, before getting up and trudging towards the kitchen. Odd. He wasn’t there. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t that odd. Papyrus had been acting differently in the past week. Sans couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong. He had never encountered it in the previous timelines. He briefly wondered if his own changes were linked then shrugged it off. No way. Now that would be much too coincidental.

 

“Papyrus! Who’s the lazy bones now?” he called as he got upstairs and opened the door. Papyrus was still sound asleep, face buried into his pillow, the duvet tousled and tangled around his bony limbs. Sans gulped, quickly covering up his exposed pelvis. He absolutely hated Papyrus’s pajamas. It was a huge t-shirt that hung loosely around his pelvis. Whenever he bent over, Sans forced himself to look away. Why couldn’t he get proper pajamas? He wouldn’t even complain if Papyrus wore his battle body armor to sleep.

 

Sans leaned over the bed, resting his head on his hands. Should he wake him up? He seemed pretty peaceful. After ten minutes of staring, Sans tapped his forehead against his brother’s.

 

“Cya later baby bones.”

 


	3. the cake is a lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AYE  
> It's super cool how some of ye awesome folks like my thing :3  
> <3  
> thank youuu  
> anywho  
> Reason why the chapters are updated so quickly is because I've been updating the story on tumblr, and now that I have an account here, I'm just uploading all the finished chapters until I'm up to the chapter I am currently working on.

* * *

 

Papyrus woke up slowly, his body raising itself up slowly like Dracula would from his coffin. He distantly looked out his window. Despite being underground, leading to the fact that day and night should look about the same, for some indiscernible reason, it looked much brighter in the morning and dark in the afternoon. At night it was pitch black, save for the lights of Snowdin. And right now it was obvious to the skeleton that he had slept past lunch and the day was closing to an afternoon. Papyrus jumped, fully awake now.

“SANS!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU WAKE ME UP! WHAT IF THE HUMAN ALREADY CAME AND I HAVENT SET ANY PUZZLES FOR THEM!!”

When he received no reply, he assumed Sans was off at Grillbys ( or maybe… MAYBE at his sentry post).

Papyrus scrambled to get his armor on before bounding down to the kitchen. He only paused just for a moment before entering the kitchen. Ever since the incident, he didn’t like the kitchen as much as he used to. Of course it was just a dream. Just a dream.

“JUST A DREAM…” Papyrus hummed quietly to himself, opening the fridge to take out sealed spaghetti. “JUST A DREAM ~ THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS RATHER IMAGINATIVE AFTER ALL! DREAMS ARE HARM –“

The room turned black

“ – LESS.”

His voice faded off, dropping the cold spaghetti to the floor.

“W-Wowie….” He stuttered. He held his body close, wanting to shrink in himself. Where was he? Why was here? Wasn’t he just in the kitchen? He buried his head in his hands. He didn’t want to be here.

_I'm sorry Papyrus._

Papyrus turned and stood quickly, excited. It was his friend!

“AH! IT’S YOU AGAIN!”

_Hehe… you may call me Gaster. I'm sorry to scare you Papyrus. Hope you’re okay?_

After a moment of thinking, Papyrus nodded frantically. Of course he was okay! After all, his new friend (who he even told him his name! wowie!) was someone he could trust!

“IT IS ALRIGHT GASTER! ITHE GREAT PAPYRUS FORGIVES YOU! SO.. UH.. WHAT IS THIS?”

Gaster seemed to be thinking. It looked around the darkness and scratched its chin.

_We’re in the kitchen I believe._

“NONSENCE! I KNOW MY KITCHEN VERY WELL AND IT IS NOT THIS DULL!”

His new friend laughed once more, hand politely over his mouth.

_No it isn’t. It is rather dull here. But do believe me Papyrus. We are in your kitchen. Simply in a different space._

Papyrus was definitely confused. Making sure it wasn’t a dream by scraping his arms, in which all he got was the pain of his arms being scratched, Papyrus continued to wander around the black void.

“BUT IF THIS IS THE KITCHEN, WHERE IS THE – OUCH!”

Papyrus jumped back, grabbing his face in pain. He had walked face straight into a solid object!

_That would be the fridge._

Furiously rubbing his sore skull, Papyrus whipped around, hands out stretched in an attempt to grab a hold of what could be his next possible cause of pain. In the realization that he looked like a complete baboon and was making a fool of himself in front of his new friend, Papyrus stopped, standing up tall and straight, clearing his throat.

“WHY YES! YOU’RE RIGHT GASTER, WE ARE IN THE KITCHEN! BUT STILL, WHAT’S GOING ON?”

Gaster motioned him forward. He turned around once papyrus was close enough and placed a hand on a seemingly black wall.

_Put your hand on mine Papyrus._

Doing as he told, Papyrus leaned forward and placed his hand on Gaster’s. There was a shimmer, a strange light that wobbled under their hands and in a stretch of energy, the light looped around itself and in the wall, creating an oval swirl of pulsating energy. Papyrus yelped in surprise and jumped back. What was this? What was going on? Before he could ask, Gaster answered him, hollow eyes fixated on the pulsing wall. His whisper of a voice came out excited, holed hands rubbing against each other in anticipation.

_Finally. I've waited so long. The portal is open._

“P-portal?”

Gaster finally turned to look at him, his fixed grin growing wider.

_Yes Papyrus. A portal. Portal to wherever and whenever. A portal of possibilities. A portal that I couldn’t open, but you could._

“M-ME?”

_Yes. For some reason, you can open it Papyrus. Even Sans couldn’t – “_

Papyrus jumped forward, practically lunging at Gaster.

“YOU KNOW MY BROTHER?!”

Gaster was quiet, his constantly morphing body trembling slightly. After a moment of silence, he talked again.

_We were friends once. Not anymore._

Papyrus jumped up and down in glee. “Wowie! My brother and you, friends!!” Gaster laughed at his enthusiasm. _Yes. Good friends._ He returned his attention back at the portal, deep in thought.

Cautiously, he reached a pale hand out. In contact with the shimmering surface, a screech of metal rang out, Papyrus instinctively covering his skull in pain. He looked up when the noise stopped, gasping in shock. Gaster had drawn back his hand and was cradling it. The tips that touched the portal were not simply gone. It… Papyrus found it hard to describe, better yet, to even comprehend. There were words. Thousands of tiny white words flickering and twitching where the portal had burned through Gaster’s fingers. Purple electricity flashed out, Gaster making small noises that resembled a frying pan being roughly scratched by a knife. Papyrus hurried forward, his hands forming small barrier around his friend’s injured hand.

“GASTER! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT? I THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL HEAL YOU!”

He pulled his magic out to gather around his hands and concentrated, but he felt his magic being pushed back. Papyrus frowned, pushing more of his magic out. It felt as if Gaster’s hand didn’t want to be healed! Gaster hummed.

_It seems you can't heal me._

_“_ WHY NOT?”

_Because I no longer exist. You cannot fix something that isn’t there anymore._

Papyrus stared back in shock.

“YOU… YOU DON’T EXIST? WHAT HAPPENED? GASTER ARE YOU A GHOST LIKE NAPSTABLOOK?”

Gaster laughed at the skeleton’s burst of questions. Interacting with the younger skeleton was so much refreshing. He softly shook his head, dismissing the questions.

_It’s not important Papyrus. What's important is this portal. I can't go through it. But you can._

Despite his question being quickly averted, Papyrus completely forgot about it and pointed at himself in shock, but the excitement was obvious despite the skeleton trying to hide it. “ME?”

Gaster nodded. As much as he wanted to go through alone, he couldn’t. Something part of the timeline could. That someone was Papyrus. He reached his good hand out to him, pulling him closer until he was right next to Gaster, staring straight at the portal.

_Yes Papyrus. You have the power to open the portal. Do you remember when you went into the darkness the first time? When you saw the words of light?_

Papyrus appeared to be in deep thought, but quickly clicked his fingers in realization. Gaster nodded. But how did Gaster know? Gaster continued on calmly.

_What you saw is what this world is made out of; what this timeline is made out of. I know you won't fully understand everything I say, but please listen. What you saw that day wasn’t meant to happen. It was a glitch. A mistake. An event never planned and never meant to be. But somehow, the world as you know cracked and you fell through papyrus. And you did what no one ever had done before. You changed the code._

“THE… CODE?”

_Exactly the code! You took what didn’t belong to you and replaced it! You changed the most crucial element of this timeline, this space, this life you know. Your single change has disrupted this timeline and now it’s frantic in re-arranging itself. Because nothing fits. With the change you made, the space and time this world had created no longer makes sense._

Papyrus was down-right confused. If he had eyes, the skeleton noted, he knew they would be spinning by now, just like those funny humans in Alphy’s human history videos.  Timelines? Space? His world? Codes? Papyrus wracked his non-existent brain to comprehend this new bombardment of information.

“WHAT DID I DO??”

Gaster grinned so wide, Papyrus was sure his face would simply split in two.

_Why, you took San’s burden!_

Papyrus continued to stare, signalling Gaster to continue.

_His burden! The resets, the nightmares, the responsibility of this world. You have it! But more interestingly, once you took his burden, the burden in itself has changed. In fact, it is currently changing. You see, although you may not yet understand, San’s burden was purely for Sans. It was designed for him. It was made for him. But once you took it, it is no longer his. It is YOURS. And so the burden is now different. The world you know is currently rapidly changing to adjust what it never expected._

Gaster grinned impossibly wider. Papyrus wondered if his head would split into three bits.

 _The world that created you was not even prepared for you!_  He clapped his hands gleefully, ignoring the sharp pain in his left hand. _Therefore, Papyrus, you are a complete surprise! You might as well be a different monster!_

“BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE A DIFFERENT MONSTER! THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUST REMAIN THE SAME TO MAINTAIN THEIR ASTOUNDING STATUR! … BUT I SUPPOSE, IF IT WILL MAKE SANS HAPPY, IT WOULDN’T HURT TO CHANGE A LITTLE.”

 _Excellent! Now, if you would do the honours?_ Gaster shifted to move out of the way, his mass quivering in excitement as papyrus approached the portal. He hesitated, gloved hands nervously picking at each other. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing! As much as he tried and weakly smiled, he didn’t quite understand what Gaster was talking about. But he did get the gist of it. If he entered the portal, he would go somewhere in another different time and place. But he couldn’t quite wrap around his head how that was even possible. It sounded too much like San’s reading material, minus the puns. He turned to Gaster, shuffling a bit.

“WILL… WILL I BE ABLE TO COME BACK?”

_You’ll be back before you know it_

And that was all the reassurance he needed. With a confident grin, Papyrus saluted his new friend and dived in.

 

 *

 

Papyrus wasn’t an idiot. All he was too much of kindness and trust bundled into one naïve and honest monster. He hadn’t even asked what he would see on the otherside of the portal, but for some reason, Papyrus felt like he didn’t need to. Something told him Gaster wasn’t so sure of the answer himself. When he dived into the portal, a ripple of strong magic coursed through him. It was like a shield, a barrier, checking his entire being before letting him past.

“W-WOAA!”

Papyrus flailed his arms about, feeling himself fall, but twisted. There was no ground. He was floating. He turned to wave a reassurance to Gaster but found that the portal was gone. He clenched his fist, trying not to panic. He wasn’t going to be stuck here, Gaster had reassured him so. He was in… well, Papyrus found the best description to be a dream space. Or maybe the most beautiful place in underground or anywhere as a matter of fact. It was strange, since the area he found himself floating in to be but a plain white space with millions of flying, colorful words wasn’t exactly one would call a ‘beautiful scenery’, but Papyrus found comfort in them either wise. Turning about, Papyrus couldn’t find the exit to this new found place. He floated about, trying to examine the words. They were constantly changing and moving at rapid speeds, Papyrus couldn’t comprehend any of them. He groaned out loud, his exaggerated movement sending him flying backwards into nothing.

“GAHH! WHERE DO I GO? WHY ISNT THERE ANOTHER PORTAL? ANY PORTAL WOULD DO!”

The sound of millions of ants gathering into a single corner was the reply he got, Papyrus immediately floating upright to see the commotion. Millions, no, BILLIONS of words assembled in front of him to create an oval mess of moving colors, turning faster and faster until it was a white blur.

“A PORTAL!” Papyrus exclaimed in delight. He jumped through, landing roughly on the other side.

Papyrus scrambled up from his not-so-graceful landing and looked about, hands on hips as he observed his surroundings. Odd. It didn’t look like a place he knew at all. A dull grey interior greeted him, with heavy cement walls on every side and a large rectangle opening on the left that appeared to be an opening out.

‘zzzt’

The portal closed behind him. Papyrus started to move around the room. There wasn’t much to see. There wasn’t much at all. A small empty bowl was sitting in the corner, and a tub of water rested on the other side. It seemed to be a room for a pet, but less… hospitable. Papyrus walked out. The rest of the building was gray. Gray curtains, gray sofas, gray tv… Papyrus felt uncomfortable. The layout of this building was too much like his house. There was the table, there were the stairs, the door, the rooms… the only big difference were that unlike who decorated this house, Papyrus had STYLE. He moved along, looking out the window. Snow filled up to the brim of the window, as if the whole town was snow- Papyrus slapped a hand to his face, grumbling. – as if the whole town was SNOWDIN. GAH.

Papyrus moved away from the window when he heard a noise, moving upstairs. “HELLO? IS ANYONE IN THE HOUSE? I’M AWFULLY SORRY TO INTRUDE.”

He knocked on the first door, the door that would’ve been his room if this was his house. He heard a shuffle on the other side, the sound of bones scraping on the hard floor and metal clinking with one another.

“HELLO?”

When he received no proper response, Papyrus allowed himself in.

The room too was gray. Gray as dust. Light peered in through the half hidden window and splashed the floor with a color that was colder than the room. A forgotten bookshelf was there, and so was a forgotten table with forgotten figurines. But that wasn’t what caught his attention; it wasn’t the first thing Papyrus saw.

On the side of the room crouching half naked was a skeleton. A skeleton wearing a scarf too red for his liking, a skeleton wearing gloves too fit for his liking, a skeleton covered in bruises and cuts too real for his liking, chained to the wall that was too painful, much too painful for his liking. Papyrus stared, dumbfounded and numb. What was going on? Where was he? Was that –

“Me…?” the skeleton turned to look at him, hollow sockets too empty to even have life. Papyrus stared back.

“ME?”

Papyrus, the one on the ground, started to cry, a smile making its way on his weary face. Papyrus immediately rushed forward and kneeled down to embrace his other self. It was strange, comforting… himself, but for now Papyrus decided it was to best to keep his mouth shut and embrace the trembling skeleton. It continued to shake and cry, broken laughter spilling out.

“I’m… I’m so happy… so happy… that there’s another me that’s all right…”

Other Papyrus pulled back, and Papyrus got the chance to closely inspect his face. He had never seen such a sad face on himself, it was honestly terrifying.

“How did you come to this timeline?”

“GASTER HELPED ME!”

Other Papyrus cocked his head. It seemed he didn’t know the name. But he smiled anyway. “I’m… I’m really glad to see you’re all right though.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ME – ER – I MEAN PAPYRUS- I MEAN UH, WELL THIS IS RATHER CONFUSING!”

Other Papyrus laughed softly, his voice cracking as if he hadn’t laughed in a long time.

“It is isn’t it? Don’t worry, I'm crazy confused too.”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?”

Other Papyrus fell quiet. He averted his gaze and looked off, body suddenly shrinking in himself, trying to hide his wounds.  “It’s nothing for your timeline to worry about. You should head back. It’s not smart of you to stay here. You shouldn’t have come. But… I'm glad that you did.” He was smiling again, and Papyrus hated it.

“WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME? WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS TIMELINE?”

The other Papyrus quickly shook his head. “It’s nothing. It’s just… things are different around here. You have to leave. Take care of yourself. Take care of your brother.” He was pushing away, and Papyrus really didn’t like that.

“WHY WON'T YOU TELL ME? THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN HELP, LET ME HEAL YOUR WOUNDS AND GET YOU OUT OF THESE CHAINS.”

Papyrus reached forward to the glowing chained metal collar around his neck before his hands were slapped away. Papyrus looked back in shock. Other Papyrus looked afraid and alert, eyes wide and teeth grounded.

“Don’t touch it.”

“W-WHY NOT?”

“… He’ll know.”

He didn’t say anymore. Now Papyrus was even more confused. He stood up, other him watching him wearily.

“ALRIGHT. I WON'T TOUCH THE COLLAR.”

Other him relaxed.

“THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL BREAK THE CHAIN INSTEAD!”

In an instant he had conjured a bone and broke through the chain. Other him stared, and when he turned to finally look at him Papyrus was confused to say the least when he looked at him in utter fear rather than gratification.

“You have to leave.” His voice heaved, and even though it was still quiet, the urgency behind the words was evident.

“B-BUT I FREED YOU! WE CAN ESCAPE TOGETHER!”

A flash of contemplation flitted through the other’s face. He quickly got up, completely ignoring how his lower half was completely exposed.

“Then we must leave now.”

Pressing a hand against the wall, Papyrus desperately tried to conjure the portal. “I – I MUST BE HONEST, THIS IS ONLY MY SECOND TIME MAKING A PORTAL AND A FIRST TIME MAKING ONE BY MYSELF – ”

His sentence was cut off when the door swung open. Papyrus turned.

“SANS?”

“S-sans…”

This was not the same Sans he knew. This was definitely not the brother he loved. The Sans that stood before them wore a large gray coat, a black brimmed hat and polished black shoes. His expression was hard and cold, one eye flaring blue in anger. His eyes flitted back and forward between the two Papyruses before relaxing a little, a smile that Papyrus was uncomfortable with creeping up.

“Oh another timeline hopper? Why don’t you go back to your timeline, or…” he slowly smiled.

“Stay here and be a pet with my cute baby bro.”

Other Papyrus pushed Papyrus back, creating a weak barrier between the two.

“Papyrus, create your portal and go!”

“I- I CAN'T- I DON’T KNOW HOW – “

“You aren’t going anywhere.” Sans splayed his arms out. Papyrus felt his soul turn blue and float up. “HEY!”

Sans beckoned him forward, forcing Papyrus to rest next to him. He leaned forward, a blue tongue flicking out.

“Oh Papy, look at how cute you look.”

“THANK YOU?”

Sans chuckled, bringing Papyrus closer. His bony hands brushed against his themur and massaged his radical. “I can't wait till I break you.” He licked his jaws. Papyrus shivered.

 There was a familiar flash of white and Papyrus was dropped. Sharp bones stuck out from the ground where Sans had stood just a second ago. Papyrus turned. His other self looked exhausted, weakly conjuring up more bones. Sans leered from his spot.

“Papyrus please, get out of here.”

It wasn’t a command. It was a request. A plead from a broken and tired version of himself. Papyrus shakily stood, trying to grasp the situation. He stared at his other self’s chipped and torn bones, the strange marks that spotted his ribs, the way he held himself, and the way Sans stared at him. He didn’t understand, but he didn’t like it. Something in him said it was wrong. Did sans… Did he…?

“B-BUT… YOU’RE… DID SANS…?”

“Please go!”

Papyrus took a step back. Then another. In his third step he felt a gap where the floor should have been and felt himself plummet into a black void.


	4. There is no rest for the poor papaya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so THIS one has some flowey/papy action and slight fontcest.  
> Just warning.
> 
> Er, sorry if it sucks DX

_…ap….yru…s….pa…..yrus….. ake….. up…._

_Papyrus wake up_

Gaster leaned over the lying skeleton in concern. After Papyrus had jumped through, the portal had closed, and it wasn’t what he had expected. It had taken the two of them to open a portal, how was Papyrus going to come back? The black blob had bobbed up and down anxiously, awaiting for Papyrus to come back in whichever way he could. It was that he worried of Papyrus’s safety, of course not. He was concerned for losing what Papyrus had. He had waited so long for the secret to traveling through the timelines, and he didn’t need that to be gone so soon. He waited and waited and waited. When Papyrus finally fell through ( _through the ceiling? How strange)_ Gaster was of course ecstatic but concerned.

Gaster wrapped his hands around Papyrus’s face and gently shook him.

_Papyrus, wake up._

Papyrus opened his sockets slowly. He felt sore. He felt awkward. Perhaps the way he was lying down was the reason. He met Gaster’s gaze and smiled.

“I’M BACK.”

_It is good to have you back. What did you see?_

Papyrus sluggishly stood up with the help of Gaster. He hugged himself.

“I… IT WASN’T A VERY NICE PLACE.”

Gaster urged Papyrus to go on, practically covering Papyrus with his mass.

“THERE WAS ME – OH BUT A DIFFERENT ME! BUT HE WAS CHAINED AND BRUISED AND… I BELIVE THAT SANS MAY HAVE DONE THAT TO HIM.” His voice came to a hush. He didn’t want to remember what he saw. It was just… too sad.

But Gaster nodded vigorously, rubbing his hands together. _Ah, what a fascinating timeline. Tell me more._

Papyrus shrugged. There wasn’t much to tell other than that. “ _I DID NOT STAY FOR LONG. EVERYTHING WAS VERY DULL AND GRAY. I'M SORRY GASTER, I'M NOT MUCH HELP.”_

Gaster shook his head. _Don’t say that Papyrus. You are of great help and importance to me. I'm sure we’ll have better luck next time._ Papyrus jolted, staring hard at Gaster.

“NEXT TIME?”

Gaster cocked his head. _Well of course. Papyrus, don’t you want to handle this responsibility of yours? Or do you plan to give it back to Sans._

Papyrus rapidly shook his head. Gaster smiled once more.

_Good. Well then, I believe our time is up. I’ll see you again Papyrus._

It felt as if the world was being sucked in. the black void swirled and was replaced with a bright flash of light that momentarily blinded him. And he was back in the kitchen, confused and feeling cold despite having no flesh.

“Papyrus? Where have you been?”

Sans had just opened the front door. He was covered in snow, his usual grin faltering and shaking. He looked frozen stiff.

Papyrus blinked. How long had he been away? He looked past Sans and outside. It was pitch black. He turned his attention back to Sans who closed the door, still staring at him.

“WHERE have you BEEN?”

Papyrus flinched. His voice was low and shaky, and it was understandable. He had been gone for the whole day! Sans must have been worried.

“SANS! I – I'M SORRY, ER, I WAS… UH… MAKING SPAGHETTI!...?”

Papyrus couldn’t bring himself to look directly at his brother, averting his gaze to the side. He couldn’t tell the truth. Of course not. Wet slippers slapped against the carpet and Papyrus turned to see Sans slowly walk up to him. The prinpricks of his white pupils were gone and with a shake he held papyrus close by the waist. Papyrus kneeled down to embrace his brother, the snow falling on this shoulders and covering his boots. He didn’t care.

“I was looking for you… I was looking for you everywhere…. Where were you…”

His voice came out exhausted, the voice of someone who trekked through the entire underground once and twice around to look for his brother. He grumbled into the warmth of his brother’s scarf, letting himself relax when Papyrus hoisted him up, shaking the snow that he was covered in.

“Where were you Pap… Where…”

Papyrus sighed in relief. His brother had fallen asleep. Good. Papyrus couldn’t think of any excuse to think of in the spot anyway. Gently cradling Sans, Papyrus made his way up the stairs, doing his best to ignore the wet slipper stains on the carpet. He could clean them later. Throwing the wet blue jacket on the ground, he bundled Sans into his bed, tucking him in. Guess he had to read himself to bed tonight. He let Sans go, only to have Sans cling on to him fast.

“Nnm… Stay…”

Papyrus sighed, if he had eyes, they would be rolling about. “OKAY, OKAY, YOU OWE ME TWO STORIES FOR BED TOMORROW SANS.” Sans grumbled a reply, pulling Papyrus closer.

Taking his boots and scarf off, Papyrus allowed himself to sink into bed with his brother, letting him nuzzle into the crook of his neck and give a satisfied sigh. Papyrus didn’t mind the intimacy. It made his brother happy, so why shouldn’t he be happy as well? And with that, they both drifted off to sleep.

 

*

 

As weary and tiring his day was, even sleep had no mercy. Papyrus awoke to a bed of golden glowers, a golden shower of light raining down to envelop the entire area. Papyrus sunk back into the flowers, soaking up the warmth through his bones. He sighs, not noticing the green vines that make its way to him. It slowly wraps around his boots and continues to snake up unnoticeably. It is only when it comes to wrap around his spine that Papyrus jolts up in an attempt to investigate what was moving. But before he can check, the vines tighten and Papyrus can’t move, his breath tight despite lacking lungs. They move quickly now, tangling itself in his rib cage and tightening his arms. Fear creeps up and papyrus doesn’t know what to do.

He wants to call out, to shout and yell, but his voice is silent and his movement slow. Papyrus forgot the rules of dreaming. You can't scream. You can't fight. All you can do is watch.

And that was what he did when a familiar figure popped up by his spine.

“Howdy!” the flower bobbed up and down on its stem. Papyrus relaxed, grinning.

“Flowey! It’s so good to see you! What’s going on?” his voice was quiet. Flowey didn’t stop moving, and as a matter of fact moved closer, his stem rooting up to slide its way on to his chest. He hummed.

“Well, let’s just say I got bored of being friends with you! So let’s try something new huh?”

There was a crack that echoed throughout the ruins followed by a silent howl. Papyrus didn’t quite register what happened until he realized he had thrown his head back, eyes filled with stars, trying hard to force out the pain that was apparent on his left fibula. He writhed, but his body was held down fast despite his efforts.

“Come now papyrus, at least it won’t be as painful as this – “

Another snap

His left tibia snapped clean off, blood oozed out through the bone marrow, Papyrus now a sobbing mess. Flowey turned to stare at the crimson liquid, continuously bobbing up and down in delight.

“Wow! Skeletons do bleed after all huh? I thought it was only Sans, but you proved me wrong! I wonder what else you can show me?”

Papyrus couldn’t quite register what Flowey was saying, his head in a swirl. Despite lacking the ability to scream, his throat felt sore and hoarse. He didn’t notice Flowey letting a vine slide down to his pelvis. He jerked up, mouth agape as Flowey stroke his coccyx, the plant curving around the tip.

Flowey laughed at the skeleton’s flushed face. “Oh and look at that! Skeletons can get horny too!”

The vines continued its assault, more coming down to stroke various parts, wet tendrils licking away at his pubic symphysis, papyrus reacting to it with a violent jerk of his hips. He didn’t understand why his body was reacting this way, why he was FEELING this way. It felt good, oh SO very good. He had never experienced it before and he wanted more. But his mind screamed that it was wrong, that it was disgusting, to be touched this way, to be held down against will, to be USED, to have his leg broken and bleeding and his pelvis mindlessly assaulted. His head hurt.

He felt sick.

“P-please… please….s-s-topppp…!!”

Papyrus managed to stutter through his gasps and moans. Something was building up in his core and felt ready to burst. He could barely open his eyes, doing his best to keep it down. Flowey moved forward, vines reaching down into his ribcage. Papyrus choked. Something was intruding his soul, wrapping around it squeezing him softly. Papyrus could hardly breathe.

“Ah… so this is a skeleton’s soul huh?”

Flowey held up his soul. There it was, glowing brighter than the fire on Grillby, pulsating gently and quivering, juices running down Flowey’s vines. It oozed everywhere. It was a mess.

“D- DON’T….AH – DON’T – P-PLEASE DON’T-“

Papyrus croaked out in between his sobs, the tears obscuring his vision. Flowey smirked.

“Please don’t? oh you mean don’t-“ he squeezed tight.

Papyrus arched his back, limbs trembling. He felt his soul scream. He felt his soul cry. In the brief second of ecstasy, Papyrus felt his entire senses flood into him; the pain of his broken leg, the pleasure from his pelvis, from the wet vines to the soft petals around him. He felt it all in one second, along with the filthy, disgusting shame that ate him up. Flowey howled in laughter.

“WOW! What a show! I bet your brother would have liked to have seen that, that was something!”

Papyrus sobbed in response. He was so tired. Flowey stroke his cheekbone and he flinched. “Shhh… It’s going to be okay, I’ll make sure you don’t remember.”

The vines around his soul tightened. It squeezed and squeezed. Papyrus gave Flowey a startling look, fear eminent in his eyes. Flowey gave a reassuring, twisted smile.

“Don’t worry... I’ll just reset over and over again and we’ll do it over and OVER AGAIN AND YOU WON'T REMEMBER A THING.”

The vines crushed his soul until it exploded; bright orange and yellow sparks filling the space where it used to be. Papyrus crumbled, eyes staring at nothing, mouth agape. Flowey watched him turn to dust, slowly sinking back into the ground.

“See you in the next reset.”

 

*

 

Sans burrowed into his brother’s arms. He wanted to stay like this forever. It was so strange to see life going to his wishes, ACTUALLY acting on them. His wish to be happier had come true. And life was now unexpected. Things weren’t following the regular timeline schedule, and Sans wasn’t sure if it was something that should be worrying or enlightening. Not exactly everything was perfect though. Sans peeped an eye open to look at his brother. He was sound asleep, and Sans reached a hand out to gently stroke his cheek. Papyrus had definitely changed the most. It was strange. It was as if all the energy had gone from his brother. Sans wanted to get to the bottom of this but… how?

All those nights of screaming in fright, was he having similar nightmares as he had? All those days of staring at nothing, what was going through his head? Sans pulled his brother closer.

“What are you hiding Pap…”

When he didn’t see Papyrus visit his post, by afternoon he was in full panic. Papyrus always came. He always did. When he called and received no answer, not even a dial, Sans felt his soul plummet and swirl in to the depths. Papyrus always had his phone charged, always had it by his side, always picked it up by two dials. And so when he didn’t, sans could only assume the worst. Running from shortcut to shortcut, his mind raced and his soul felt like it could break any second. Did the human come early this time? Did the human fight his brother? Did the human… did they… did they…”

Sans stilled a sob and closed his eyes, concentrating in bringing his soul closer to his brother. He felt the intimacy, the warmth, and he gritted his teeth, pulling his soul back. What was he doing? What a disgusting excuse for a brother. But that didn’t make Sans move away. He stayed nestled in his brother’s arms, enjoying the closeness. If Papyrus really didn’t want to talk about what was going on, he wasn’t going to push it. All he had to know was that his brother was happy and safe. That was all he ever needed.

He got a few good hours of sleep before Papyrus started to wiggle around. Sans woke up when Papyrus elbowed his left socket, shooting up in pain.

“Papyrus! Geez, why do you squirm so much-”

Sans didn’t have the time to finish his sentence when a blood curdling scream pierced his ears. Wide eyed, Sans realized in horror that it was his brother screaming and hurriedly grabbed his face.

“Hey! Hey it’s just a dream, Papyrus it’s just a dream!”

He must have heard him, for his cry became a muffle – before exploding into a pitch Sans never thought he could ever reach. It was a scream fit to wake the dead, and Sans was very much awake and alert more than ever. He continued to rub his brother’s face, this time more for his own sake as he panicked, unsure what to do.

“I-it’s okay it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay! Papyrus it’s okay!” he stammered out, doing his best to soothe his brother.

His scream slowly died down to sobs of pain. Sans looked over his body, throwing the duvet aside. He couldn’t see any injuries and sighed in relief. He turned his attention back to his brother, stroking his skull and hushing him, hoping it worked.

“Sh… It’s okay Pap, big brother’s here… I’m here… I- ah?”

Sans stopped, staring at Papyrus in shock, he was breathing heavily, and more than that, he was MOANING. It was subtle and quiet, mixed with his sobs and tears, but oh Sans was sure he heard it quite right. He was given a confirmation when the moans got louder, his hips bucking against San’s. Sans blushed bright blue, his magic heating up into frenzy. He had been sitting on Papyrus in order to calm him down, and now he regretted it as Papyrus continued to thrust his pelvis upwards, gasping and crying and moaning all at the same time. He should get off his brother right about now, he really probably should. But he found himself rooted to the spot. Sans burrowed his fist into the bed sheets, trying to stabilize himself. No no no no no no no no, no he was not, NOT going to fuck his brother. He closed his sockets shut, trying to drown out the noises so he could concentrate in getting a hold of his magic and the control over his body, but all he could hear was his brother’s raw gasps and cries.

He shouldn’t be horny over this, Sans reminded himself. His brother was obviously having a nightmare, and what was he doing? Trying his best not to touch his brother or himself to fulfill his own sexual desires.

Papyrus’s moans gave to a climax, his body arching up. Sans gulped and couldn’t look away. His brother had the most perfect body. Papyrus cried out and Sans shuddered, the taller skeleton slumping back down, before crying again. Sans didn’t dare touch him as much as he wanted to comfort his brother. He didn’t trust his hands. Papyrus’s cries were cut short and he was limp once more. Sans slowly got off his brother. His brother was back sleeping. Good. Gently, he wiped the tears away. Before getting up, Sans hesitated.

He kissed his brother and got up to get a cold, long shower.


	5. Short as a short stick, oh what a tragedy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUPER SHORT CHAPTER BECAUSE...!  
> the next chapter is what I'm working on, so I have finally caught up with Archive of own huzzah!!
> 
> Warning, this chapter might be rather offensive to rape victims, so please be careful

* * *

 

Papyrus was up when Sans was still asleep. He sighed, moving as slowly as he could in order to keep his brother asleep. Papyrus massaged his temples, sighing a little. What did last night’s dream mean?  Making his way into the kitchen Papyrus closed his eyes and focused in envisioning a dark void. He peeked a socket open. His kitchen was still there. He shut his eyes once more and concentrated once more.

 

“BLACK SPACE COME ON!!! GASTER I NEED YOU!”

 

_You called?_

 

Papyrus opened his eyes in a startle. Gaster chuckled.

 

_Next time, just call out for me and I’ll be there._

 

Papyrus nodded before crossing his arms and settling a serious look. Gaster mused. This was going to be interesting.

 

“I'M NOT SURE IF YOU WILL KNOW THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION, BUT I WILL TRY ANYWAY. ARE MY DREAMS LINKED TO MY BURDEN?”

 

Gaster answered immediately, as if he had been asked a similar question before.

 

_Yes, well, most of them anyway. What dreams have you been having?_

 

Papyrus raised a finger to tap his chin, thinking. “I’VE ONLY HAD TWO DREAMS SO FAR. ONE I HAD THE MOST IS THE DREAM OF A GOLDEN HALL. THERE IS THIS… THING, A MONSTER, I'M NOT QUITE SURE. IN THESE DREAMS IT” Papyrus briefly paused before continuing; “IT KILLS ME. IT’S THE SAME DREAM.”

 

Papyrus fell quiet. Gaster stroked his hands for a while before speaking again.

 

_Those are San’s memories_

 

“SAN’S MEMORIES? HOW? WHY WOULD HE HAVE MEMORIES OF DYING??”

 

Gaster sighed. _Resets, remember Papyrus? The thing you saw was a human. A human possessed with a soul that wanted to do nothing but kill. In a different time, in a different reset, San’s was the sole barrier between the human and the destruction of humans and monsters alike. But time and time, over and over, he died, over and over and over again. What you see in those dreams are his memories of being cut._

 

Papyrus shuddered, holding himself up. He really wanted to hold his brother right now. He closed his eyes, remembering the anguish and pain that ran through him when the knife sliced through him. He wanted to comfort his brother more than anything.

 

_As for why you’re having his memories… I suspect it’s because the world is not used to the burden being handed to you. With a sudden change in hosts, it continues to provide same dream while slowly trying to find a way to change the code to fit you. But it still confuses me, have you only been dreaming of San’s memory? By now you should be dreaming of your own past reset memories._

 

Papyrus shuffled uncomfortably. He definitely didn’t want to remember that dream, and he really, really didn’t want to tell his new friend about it. Gaster stood patiently. Papyrus averted his gaze.

 

“I… I DID DREAM OF SOMETHING ELSE. LAST NIGHT. I DREAMED OF FLOWEY AND WELL – HE- UH- HE DID THIS… AND UM”

 

Papyrus couldn’t help himself. As strong and hard as he tried, he collapsed into a fit of tears. He hurriedly covered his face. Oh he was such an embarrassment, crying in front of his new friend! Now they wouldn’t think he was so cool anymore. He was startled and surprised when Gaster wrapped himself around him, head resting on top and hands lightly touching his shoulders. It was barely a hug, as if he was afraid to touch him, but it was an embrace nevertheless, and Papyrus needed it.

 

_Its okay… you can tell me about it. It’ll make you feel better._

 

Papyrus nodded. That’s what Sans always said too. And… Papyrus couldn’t quite remember who else said it too, but Papyrus figured it was probably Undyne.

 

“Flowey… broke my left l-leg  and… he…” His voice came out weak and quivering, Papyrus squeezed his eyes tight. Saying will make things better. Saying will make things better. “He touched me in my pelvis and it make me feel good but I felt disgusting and I couldn’t move because he held me down and I couldn’t stop making noises and I told him to stop but he kept on going and I couldn’t stop him and I was so weak and I don’t know why but I really liked it and he did something to my soul and everything became a blur and I felt so good and I'm so ashamed because the great papyrus has standards and what he did wasn’t right and I just i… i… “ his voice was quiet and quick as he stammered and tumbled all over his words. He finally took the breathe he was holding in and squeezed his hands tight, not daring to look at Gaster. “He killed me after that. I felt my soul being crushed and myself turning to dust. It was… awful.”

 

He finally looked Gaster. Gaster looked at him. He had such a strange expression on his face, Papyrus couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His smile was twisted upside down, as if he was frowning, while the lights in his eyes were empty. Oh no! He had made his friend upset! Papyrus mustered up a weak, big smile.

 

“I-ITS OKAY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NOT AFFECTED BY ANY OF THIS! ITS J-JUST A DREAM! A-A-ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE TOLD ME IT IS A MEMORY… I-ITS NOT IN MY TIMELINE! IT DIDN’T HAPPEN TO ME! S-SO IT IS ALL FINE!”

 

Gaster said nothing. Instead, it wrapped itself even closer to Papyrus, hands giving small pats behind his back.

 

_You’re very strong papyrus. I admire that._

 

Papyrus stiffened slightly, before bobbing up and down in agreement. “OF COURSE! THE ROYAL GUARD ONLY ACCEPTS THE FINEST, AND I SHALL BE THE GREATEST ROYAL GUARDSMAN THERE WILL EVER BE!”

 

Gaster nodded, pulling back with a big grin. He then moved back until he was a safe distance away from him, hands lightly touching each other.

 

_Any other dreams?_

 

Papyrus blinked. It felt as if the previous conversation never had happened. Maybe Gaster didn’t like intimacy. Papyrus could respect that.

 

“ER, I BELIEVE I HAVE DREAMED WHILE I WAS AWAKE!”

 

_Oh?_

 

“YES! I WAS ABOUT TO MAKE ANOTHER BATCH OF MY GREAT SPAGHETTI WHEN I WAS IN A GOLDEN ROOM! THE THING- THE HUMAN WAS THERE TOO AND SO WAS SANS! IT WAS LIKE A MEMORY, EXCEPT I WAS THERE.”

 

Gaster appeared to be deep in thought. _Did you talk to them?_

 

“YES. THE HUMAN WAS… VERY UNPLEASANT.”

 

_What happened._

 

Papyrus sighed. “THE HUMAN ATTACKED. SANS TRIED TO KILL THEM. THE HUMAN KILLED HIM. THEN IT KILLED ME. THEN I FELL INTO A HOLE AND WOKE UP BACK IN THE KITCHEN.” Papyrus frowned. Sure he was upset and disturbed by what had happened in the dream, but recalling the memory didn’t bring him as much as pain as he had expected. More than anything he felt tired.  But the sight of his brother being torn to shreds still made him sick to the stomach and brought a cold, dreadful shudder down his spine.

 

_A glitch probably. It seems like the world was just trying to adjust to your new burden. Nothing to worry about._

 

“WILL MY BURDENS BE THE SAME AS SANS?”

 

 _No._ Gaster shook his head. _Although I don’t see the ability to travel through different timelines a burden. More of a gift._

 

“HOW… ER, WHY IS THAT MY BURDEN? CANT I JUST… NOT TRAVEL THROUGH THE TIMELINES?”

 

Gaster looked offended. He stiffened. _Papyrus, what do you mean? You…_ Gaster paused, in deep thought. _You have no choice Papyrus. If you don’t, the burden may go back to Sans._

 

That made Papyrus immediately shut up. “NO! PAPYRUS WILL DO WHAT HE MUST DO! HOW… HOW OFTEN MUST I DO THAT?”

 

_Every night._

 

Papyrus looked rather miffed. But it was only for a moment before he nodded vigorously. Gaster smiled once more. It was wonderful how naïve Papyrus was. How gullible.  Much easier to handle then Sans.

 

_Is there anything else you wanted papyrus?_

 

“OH! WILL… I DREAM OF MY PAST MEMORIES EVERY TIME I SLEEP?”

 

_I don’t know Papyrus. But the great Papyrus is strong, no? Dreams can’t possibly faze him._

 

It worked. Of course it worked. It always did. Papyrus was already jumping up and down in agreement, fully energized.

 

“YES! YES OF COURSE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL JAPE THIS BURDEN UNTIL IT WILL BE SICK OF BEING A BURDEN! THANK YOU GASTER! AU REVOIR!”

 

And there was the bright flash of light before he was standing in his kitchen. Papyrus sighs the suppressed heavy air he held within him and lets himself slump against the tall sink. He drew his knees close and balled up, head resting on his hands. He quietly shook in the cold kitchen where no one could see him cry.


	6. F is for friends who do stuff together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hoooki
> 
> This is a pretty light chapter, so hope ya'll enjoy? please excuse me if anyone appears rather out of character anytime :(

***

When Sans woke up, he tried not to think about how empty his bed felt, but couldn’t resist balling the duvet in his arms and smelling into Papyrus’s scent. Burnt tomatoes, pine cones and the scent of well-done furniture; not too old and not too new. Sans held these fragrances deep in his soul.

Cheers to another day in the underground, Sans sighed and slowly got up. Midday, he noted, looking out the window before trudging down the stairs. He really didn’t want to match eyes with Papyrus today. Not after the incident. He felt his soul skip a beat, hearing the very voice he dearly loved. Making his way to the kitchen Sans shoved his hands in his pockets and gave an exaggerated yawn. Papyrus whipped around. Sans mentally groaned. He was wearing the god awful apron that was just below his pelvis, frills everywhere with a massive pink heart smack bang in the middle.

“SANS! YOU’RE FINALLY AWAKE! HERE HAVE GOOD HELPING SPAGHETTI TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR DAY!”

“Sure thing bro.”

Sans leisurely took the plate of hot spaghetti from his brother’s hands (definitely not looking down the apron) and slumped over the couch, clicking on the tv to another pointless MTT show. Papyrus sure liked the robot, much to his dismay. What did he see in this robot? Sans glared at the screen as if Mettaton could feel his glare. What did the robot have that he didn’t? Maybe he’ll  give the bot a mettaTON of words later on, if he bothered. Sans scratched his chin. Actually, he was rather bothered. Yes, he’ll definitely have a talk.

Sans shifted his attention to the plate lying haphazardly on his lap. It could slip with one wrong move. It wasn’t burnt this time, which was quite a surprise, and with a stir, the noodles weren’t stuck solid to each other. Usually, a single bite made Sans want to bite his own feet off, but he always downed the thing until the plate was clean. Hey, anything to keep his brother happy.

He shoved the spaghetti into his mouth, readying his body for the worst, and in doing so his sockets instantaneously opened wide. He took another bite. Then another. Then another. Before he knew it he had finished the whole plate clean off. He jumped off the couch and practically bounded for the kitchen, skidding to a halt.

“Pap!!!”

“Y-YES BROTHER?”

“More!”

“M-MORE??”

Papyrus was shocked to say the least. He was expecting Sans to gulp down the amount he could manage before leaving the plate by the couch as he always did.

“B-BUT… IT ISN'T THAT GREAT…”

“Papyrus, what are you talking about? This thing is great! You should make it like this more often! What did you do differently?”

Papyrus fiddled with his wooden spoon. Oh what to say in such a situation? Should he tell? That he lacked the energy to smash the tomatoes like Undyne had taught him? That he couldn’t find the strength in him to throw the entire packet of noodles in one go? That he clumsily used olive oil instead of diesel? Oh what a shame he is! Undyne would be scowling at him for sure had she been here standing the same kitchen as he. Papyrus shrugged to his brother’s question, turning his attention back to the stove.

“AH WELL, A TRUE CHEF NEVER REVEALS HIS SECRETS!”

Sans chuckled. “True that, otherwise, you would be an IMPASTA.”

“SANS DO YOU WANT A SECOND SERVING OR NOT.”

“Serve it up paps, and I’ll just spaghetto out of here.”

Sans laughed, dodging his way out of the kitchen while Papyrus hysterically flung the noodles towards him.

 

*

 

Clean up was quick, and even quicker was the speed of San’s hunger as he wiped the pot clean off from any sauce or noodle. Papyrus was impressed, and more than that, swelling with pride. He puffed his chest up as the two walked out of their home and headed for their sentry stations.

“I gotta say Pap… You’re getting real good with this whole food business.” He cocked his head to the side to give a slanted grin, “I thought it was going to spirali out of control.”

Papyrus raised a socket and in a moment of doubt, placed his hands on hips with a huff and Sans held his breath. He knew exactly what that meant and oh, he felt shivers for what was coming.

“WELL SANS, I AM RATHER FEDUPCCHINE WITH YOU RIGHT NOW.”

Letting the brief moment of silence glide past the two, they burst into laughter. Sans doubled over, trying his best to stay up and ended up clinging on to Papyrus’s scarf. 

“Ahahahha oh my stars stop, ahahahha!!!!!”

“N-NYEH HEH HEH EHEH! I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT SANS, I-IT WASN’T FUNNY AT ALL! NYE HEH EH HEH HEEHHE!!”

“B-but you’re – eheheheheh! You’re laughing!!!”

“YOU HAAAVE NO PROOOOOOF! NYEH HEHEHE!!”

Papyrus shoved sans off and the smaller skeleton allowed himself to collapse in the snow. Oh god it hurt to laugh, how long had it been since he laughed so much? Oh stars, he loved it. He wanted to laugh more, feel more, of all this. Giddy and excited, Sans shot up, his grin so wide he felt like his skull would split.

“Just because it’s in the pasta, it doesn’t mean I don’t have proof!”

“NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!”

For some reason, it also felt as if it had been a while since he heard his brother genuinely laugh. Ever since the nightmares ha started, Papyrus was more… distant. And that was something Sans was not used to. Seeing his brother laugh so much, it was encouragement and he continued to spitball his awful jokes as fast as he could.

“Where did the Spaghetti go to dance? The meat ball!!”

“NYEHHEHEHEHE!!!!”

“what do you call a pasta that is sick? Mac and sneeze!!!”

“S-SANS S-S-TTTOOOPP MY STOMACH!!! WELL, THAT IS, IF I HAD ONE!! NYEH HEH HEH!!”

Sans wheezed to his knees. Oh god. That’s what humans said, right? When everything feels so good and so right, like an explosion of hot lava oozing through you and fixes you into a spot where nothing can be wrong and everything’s just right. That surge of reassurance that coursed through you as if it was saying ‘everything’s fine. It’s okay to be happy. It’s okay to smile. It’s okay to laugh. It’s okay to live’. Is it okay? Is it okay? It is truly okay to feel this good? To feel this elated? And that oh so good feeling of yours would overwhelm you and whisper; yes.

“SANS?”

Sans stayed kneeled in the snow, shaking, head slumped on the floor and arms crossing one another. Papyrus gasped. Was it the burden? Was it affecting him?

“Sans?”

Papyrus whispered quietly, hands on his brother’s shoulders for comfort. At the slightest touch, Sans looked up.

It was a smile Papyrus remembered vaguely. It was a long time ago, god help him remember exactly how long, when Papyrus saw that smile. The memory was distorted, blurry, barely forming a coherent image. But it was there. The moment he opened his eyes. There it was. That smile. The brightest smile the underworld could ever ask for. The smile that inspired Papyrus for years to now.

Papyrus stared, unable to speak. Sans flung himself to him and he allowed the tight embrace, jaws still hanging uselessly. Finally, he returned the tight embrace, letting his laughter fill in the silence.

“BROTHER, IT’S SO GOOD TO SEE YOUR SMILE.”

 

*

 

The two split to their own respective stations, both equally late (regrettably as Papyrus liked to add while Sans laughed). Papyrus stretched his limbs and stared out into the forest. There wasn’t going to be a human today, he could feel it. Perhaps it was due to the effects of his new burden, or maybe it was his good old inkling telling the truth as it always did. Papyrus held back another yawn. How many times now, 27? 27 times Papyrus had the urge to yawn and it had only been two hours since he arrived at his station. Was it the burden working his bones out or his brother’s laziness wearing off him? He wasn’t sure which option he liked more. Papyrus laughed wearily. And how many days had it been? Oh he counted. 23. 23 days since he decided to act god. He wasn’t quite sure what god truly was or even meant, but reading the use of the word in human books, he decided it was the right example to use for his situation.

The lanky skeleton allowed his body to slowly slump behind the sentry, leaning half his weight onto the cardboard. Did he regret his decision on that day? No, of course not. If he could go back, he’d do it all over again. Papyrus now had his head resting on his hands. He could feel his sockets droop despite the lack of eyelids. He should really be re-calibrating his puzzles, it had already been 7 hours since he last did so.

“B-BUT NO HUMAN WILL COME THROUGH TODAY…”

A nice reassurance, Papyrus allowed his head to sag further down until his arms created a pillow underneath his head. If a human did come through, what would happen? Papyrus wondered quietly. Why, they would have to solve his puzzles, listen to his amazing japes and be thoroughly thwarted in their steps by the great Papyrus! Why, he would lead them through the most dastardly created puzzle, the human would promptly give up and allow Papyrus to capture them! Papyrus sighed and nuzzled into his makeshift pillow.

Voice muffled by his scarf, the skeleton fell asleep.

 

What woke him up wasn’t the painfully bright light that seemed to beam right through his skull, oh heavens no, and it definitely wasn’t the commotion that seemed to erupt as he tried to get sense of what was going on. No, that would be ridiculous. What made him shoot up was the warmth that pooled and gathered around him, the sticky, thin liquid that clung to his pearl white bones as he shook himself awake, the oozing crimson fluid that stained his clothes and stained his sight.

Papyrus choked. He was here again. The grand golden hall with windows that lined adjacent to the pillars. The grand, golden, awful hall that stank like death.

“OH NO…”

“Oh yes.”

He froze. Willing his bones to move, he turned. The thing- no, the HUMAN was there. Eyes blazing red and cheeks pink as roses, the twisted smile gave away that the human was no ordinary child from the surface.  They twirled their knife in their hands, humming all the while slowly approaching Papyrus. What a sweet melody it sang for such a sick human.

“You’re back. And more shockingly, you’re alive. That’s new. That’s weird.”

Papyrus continued to stare, hands gathered at his chest as if it would stop an incoming attack. It was an instinctual habit, something he always did for as long as he could remember. They never did anything of course, but it had always made Papyrus feel better. The human smirked at the lack of response.

“You don’t even know why you’re here.”

“…”

“You’re quiet for a timeline hopper. What timeline are you supposed to be from? Happy? Sad? Mixed?”

“…”

“Not that it matters. Say, tell me the difference between you and the other time hoppers. How are you alive. I just killed you.”

That snapped Papyrus back to reality. He quickly looked around. He turned to the human.

“Where’s-“

“ – your brother? Geez, you have a sore memory don’t you.”

They stepped aside. Behind them was the remains of his brother; a blue bloody jacket.

He wasn’t sure what came over him. Emotions sure are funny things. Papyrus wasn’t daft, not as much as some monsters may think. He knew other monsters had skeletons inside them. He knew that he was an impossible monster. How could he talk? How could he walk? how could he feel? The answer all came down to magic and it was the most logical and true answer. Funny how magic could harbor something as strong as a soul, and how quaint that a soul could have emotions. And that was exactly what he felt.

 Oh how he pride himself in his self control, in his discipline, in his magic. But all he saw next was white. Bony gloved hands curling to a tight fist, rage had consumed and controlled him ripping away all other means as he leapt forward, jaws snapping in anger with bones conjured and slicing through the air at rapid speed.

The human grinned. Had papyrus not been blind with rage, he would’ve been clapping. The human moved gracefully, dodging every each bone. They twirled and leaped until they were simply standing in front of the skeleton. A knife dug into his spine and Papyrus jumped back, biting down a scream. The human rolled their shoulders back before giving a wave to the side.

“Sorry to disappoint, but if you don’t start with my questions, you’re just going to be a nuisance.” Their smug grin curled. “And that means you’re in my way.”  

Papyrus held fast on the new wound. Almost halfway through the spine, the knife had left a fissure, and he lacked the concentration to heal it back up. He looked hard at the human. Something told him that he shouldn’t tell this human what he knew. It felt too dangerous. He glanced at San’s jacket. The blood that had seeped in had mixed with the blue, resulting into pink patches here and there. He shuddered.

“Looks like you’re not talking.”

Turning his attention back, the human started walking forward. Papyrus hunched over, seeping his magic out to form more bones. A deep low growl rumbled through his magic, and Papyrus caught himself half way. Was that him? The human laughed at the distraction. Papyrus puffed up. How dare the human laugh at him! He ought to –

He was cut off from his drabble when the knife had once again cut him. Eyes widening, Papyrus staggered back. His entire spine felt numb. His entire body felt numb. He shuddered, thoughts racing through. He was going to turn to dust, wasn’t he?

But strangely he didn’t. Papyrus watched in fear and confusion as the human took quick sudden steps back. Eyes widening and mouth drawn into a tight line.  Papyrus looked down to his body.

It was everywhere. Shifting and pulsing, it glitched through the air and through his body, flashing and jittering. Papyrus gasped. What was going on? Holding a breath, he moved his arm to see it closer. It quivered, as if trying to stay still, as if it was about to go. Like a light on a candle in a cold harsh night, it flickered. His whole body shook as if struggling to stay whole. Papyrus choked. He closed his hands into a tight fist and tried to release the tightening in his chest. He was panicking. ‘What was going on, what was going on, WHAT WAS GOING ON WHAT WAS GOING ON WHAT WAS GOING ON SOMEONE PLEASE HELP PLEASE TELL ME WHAT’S ON.’

Papyrus gasped in an attempt to get air, although being a skeleton didn’t help. Words and numbers, they flashed through him like he was air. Papyrus looked to the human. They seemed equally confused.

“H-HUMAN! WHAT’S GOING ON?”

The human raised an eyebrow, amused at the skeleton’s sudden change of demeanor. Staring hard at Papyrus’s shifting body, the human seemed to have understood, for it slowly smiled.

“You did something with the code, didn’t you?”

Papyrus froze.

The human’s smile grew wider and wider. Papyrus did nothing but stare, unsure how he should respond.

“YOU! Out of everyone, YOU! You messed around with the code didn’t you! AHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHHAAH!” Their laughter echoed through the hall. “How did you do that?” the human started to walk forward, “tell me how you did it!”

Papyrus stepped back with arms up in defense. “HUMAN WAIT! I DO NOT THINK IT IS SAFE FOR YOU TO COME ANY CLOSER TO ME! PUT THE KNIFE DOWN!”

The human made a noise, lips sticking out in a funny manner. Without warning, they swung their blade, cutting through his arm. Papyrus cried out, but soon stopped. It didn’t hurt. The human mused once Papyrus stopped backing away, looking at his arms in confusion.

“Looks like you can’t get hurt by me anymore.”

To prove their point, they continued to swing their sword haphazardly. Papyrus could feel the knife touch his bones, but for some reason, it didn’t hurt. Like water the knife passed through him and his body slowly shifted back into its unstable form.  The human took a step back, setting the knife down and crossing their arms.

“Whoa.”

“WHOA.” Papyrus echoed their words.

The two stood opposite of each other in mute silence, unsure of what to do now.  When the human sat down, Papyrus saw his queue to copy their action, crossing his leg and timidly pulling his limbs together in a bundle.

“…”

“…”

The human scratched their head, eyebrows furrowed in a concentrated thought. Papyrus anxiously drummed his fingers on his radius. There was nothing else for him to do. He couldn’t leave; he hadn’t come through with a portal. And one thing for sure, the human was not someone to strike up a conversation, especially with such a concentrated expression. It was the same face he had when he was trying to come up with new puzzles. Such determination! He knew it was better to leave them be, despite wanting to ask so many questions. Papyrus cocked his head to look past the human. The jacket was still there, and it certainly wasn’t going to go anywhere. He turned to look at the human once more. He knew he should be feeling angry right now, more than anything. And he was. Oh he was. His soul screamed at him to do something, not just sit next to the one who killed his brother. But he simply couldn’t. He wasn’t sure what was holding him back, but every inch of his being said no, that this human wasn’t that bad. That despite killing his brother and trying to kill him… Something told him there was more to what he was seeing.

 Trying to amuse himself, Papyrus wiggled his fingers about. They blurred and mixed with one another like a single matter, barely visible as individual fingers. He didn’t feel so afraid anymore. His body didn’t feel like they were about to break apart any second. It felt… like being underwater.

Papyrus looked up from his distraction when he heard a small cough. The human had been staring at him with their large red eyes. It didn’t seem too pleased, but nevertheless spoke.

“We need to help each other.”

“THAT SOUNDS GREAT! BUT HELP WITH WHAT?”

The human appeared slightly annoyed by the skeleton’s deafening voice, but continued.

“With whatever. Obviously, I can’t leave this stupid hall and you keep on coming back. There must be a reason for that. There’s something in the code that is doing all this – “

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE?”

“…No, I can’t you dimwit. There’s – ugh! See for yourself!”

In an aggravated huff, the human stood up and made their way to the end of the hall. Turning around to make sure Papyrus was still watching, they turned and went in through the dark opening –

-only to come back out.

“HUMAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE YOU COMING BACK IN HERE?”

They shot an irritated look. “Were you watching a brick wall??”

They ran back through the entryway, only to come running straight out. With a frustrated scream, they continued to run in and out until they dropped to the floor in an exasperated huff.

Papyrus pulled himself up, making his way to the now tired human. The human stared back at him, red faced and out of breath.

“HUMAN, YOU REALLY ARE STRANGE! IS THIS SOME SORT OF GAME?”

The human grabbed their knife and sliced through his head. Papyrus jolted back, but remembered he couldn’t get hurt anymore, and settled to edging closer to the frustrated human.

“Just go through the door!”

And that was what Papyrus did. A strange sensation passed through him as he walked through, almost like walking through one of the portals. He was indeed rather puzzled when he found himself turned 180 degrees back facing the golden hall once more. He stopped. What? He turned and marched through and once again, he was staring at the same hall. Papyrus let out a quiet mutter of confusion. With all his might, he charged at the dark entryway – and there he was running straight out of the entryway and almost tripping over the human lying down.

“Watch it!”

The much perplexed skeleton stumbled and regained his balance as gracefully he could manage. He eyed the door way with a frown.

“AH! A PUZZLE! NOTHING TO FEAR, THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN SOLVE THIS!”

Reaching down, he yanked his boot off and threw it into the door way with full force. Needless to say, it came out with the same sheer strength, catching Papyrus right in the face.

The human laughed, Papyrus rubbing his face with a disgruntled huff, slightly embarrassed. The human was right. They were trapped in this hall. Papyrus held in a sigh of relief. That meant they couldn’t get to Asgore.

The human rolled about on the marbled floor, groaning in irritation.

“See? I can’t go. This is so stupid.”

They sat up, poking their knife at the ground. “It’s so boring.”

Timidly, Papyrus sat down next to the human, putting his boot back on. He sure didn’t want the human to go past the door way, but he also didn’t want the human to sit here doing nothing. How boring. This human was only a child after all.

“HOW ABOUT… NOT GOING THROUGH THE DOORWAY?”

The human shot him a stunned look, which was quickly transformed into a form of anger. Papyrus waved his arms in defense.

“MAYBE THE DOORWAY WILL OPEN LATER! HOW ABOUT JUST DOING OTHER THINGS?”

The human scowled, turning their head away. “Like what. There’s no one out there.”

Papyrus raised a socket. “BUT YOU COULD HANG WITH UNDYNE! AND OH METTATON WOULD BE SUCH – “

“They’re all dead. I killed them.”

Papyrus stared in shock. Dead? They couldn’t be dead. In a hurry, the skeleton took his phone out, dialing Undyne’s number. The phone gave a low guttural static before cutting off. He tried dialing another number. Than another. he received the same response for each. He felt hot tears welling up. No they weren’t dead. His phone just wasn’t working. It was because he was in a different place, not in his own timeline. He got up, running down the hall. The human scrambled up, following him.

“Where are you going?”

Papyrus gave no response.

He ran down the hall, waiting by the elevators and mashing his finger into whatever buttons. He wasn’t thinking clearly. He had also never been to this place – wherever it was. The elevator rides were quick and silent, giving no time for the human to ask anything. Still, they stared up, unused to the skeleton’s strange cold shoulder.

“Where are you going.”

Papyrus glanced back down, nervously pocketing his phone.

“I’m going to Alphys.”

The human shrugged knowingly. “She’s not gonna be there.”

He ignored them.

Papyrus walked out. He knew this place. It was the core. He had never personally come to the core but for some reason, the area appeared familiar to him. He walked towards the familiar music of the hotel. He sighed with relief. He couldn’t wait to see familiar faces once more. He opened the doors. There was no one. The music was slow and drawn out, and the air felt cold, despite being in Hotland. Papyrus looked to the reception. No one. He looked to the restaurant. No one. But there was someone in the store.

Bursting through the double doors, the skeleton was greeted by a face of anxiety and nothing but stress.

"JESUS, oh god you scared me, why do I always get - "

“BURGERPANTS!!”

“My name isn’t burgerpants…”

But burgerpants was already swamped with an armful of a bony hug. He grumbled, lightly pushing the skeleton away but giving in.

“Hey dude, you can’t do that I’m working here!”

Papyrus promptly dropped the puffed cat, grinning cheekbone to cheekbone.

“MY GREATEST APOLOGIES! WHERE’S EVERYONE?”

The cat shrugged, lighting a cigarette and leaning over the counter. “Gone.”

“WHERE?”

“Who knows. Not here though.”

He eyed the human behind the skeleton, puffing out a smoke.

“Why don’t you ask the little weirdo?” he laughed.

Papyrus brushed the suggestion off. He thanked the depraved slaved worker and marched out. The human stuck an annoyed tongue out at the cat and followed.

“Where are you going.”

But the human already knew where he was going.

 

*

 

Papyrus stared out at the forest. He slowly sat down on the soft snow. The human was speaking the truth. There was no one here. No one everywhere. The whole of underground was deserted. He was sure most of them had evacuated somewhere in the city and some at New home, but he didn’t want to go there. There was a reason why he and Sans had moved to Snowdin. He never liked the big city. Too busy, too many people. The human kept their distance, but upon realizing that the skeleton wasn’t going to move anytime soon, they came to sit next to him, stabbing at the snow.

“I told you. I killed them.”

Papyrus stared at the snow. He should kill the human. That was the right thing to do. They had killed his friends. His family. They had taken his home away from him. And they had killed him in this timeline. Papyrus continued to stare at the white snow.

He liked snow. Appreciated its color. How blank it was. It never gave anything away. A blank white canvas. It was peaceful like that. It helped him think of nothing.

“Human… Why did you kill them?”

They twitched. Hearing Papyrus say anything with a lack of enthusiasm was a first for them. They drew a circle on the ground.

“To get strong. So I can leave this place.”

“Oh.”

Papyrus watched the human draw. A circle. Two parallel lines. Half a circle. Two long ears. A striped shirt.

“Who’s that?”

“A failure.”

They stabbed the drawing violently, leaving a mound of snow for a drawing. Papyrus mused. The he started his own drawing on the snow.

“What are you drawing.”

“Have a guess!”

A lumpy circle, two large eyes, and a smile that could irritate anyone in a hundred mile radius. The human grimaced.

“Sans.”

Papyrus smiled proudly. He continued to draw, adding himself, then Undyne, then Alphys, then Mettaton –

“How do you know him?”

Papyrus blinked. He was in the middle of drawing Gaster, and he hadn’t even realized.

“He’s a friend of mine.”

The human hummed, clearly amused. Their red eyes glowed, slipping out a chuckle. “Heh, okay then, whatever you say.”

Papyrus frowned. He really wished what went in the human’s head.

The two sat in their awkward silence, the human mindlessly stabbing into the thick snow and Papyrus continuing his drawing. The human shivered, sneezing and wiping their nose on their sleeve.  Papyrus turned.

“Are you cold?” Papyrus asked.

“What do you think.”

It was an act that Papyrus did without thinking. Like mother instinct, or in this case, brother instinct; he unwrapped his scarf and engulfed the human with it, wrapping them nice and tight. That’s what Sans did to him when he was young. Papyrus smiled. The scarf flickered, as if about to fade, but stayed put.

“All better?”

“…”

The human gave no reply, body stiff. After a while, they allowed themselves to get comfortable, nuzzling into the red glitching fabric. They stared off into the woods, and despite receiving no response, Papyrus was fine. At least the human was warm. He turned his attention back at his drawing, determined to finish it. It was something to do. The human continued to look away, their eyes focused on a thought that Papyrus could not see.

“Why do you do that.” They eventually said. Even though asking a question, they appeared nonchalant, as if they spoke to the wind. Papyrus was confused to say the least.

“What do you mean human?”

“Why do you still believe.”

It was a question taken completely out of context. A question Papyrus was unsure for. It was barely a question. More of a statement as Papyrus further considered it. The human laughed.

“Of course you don’t know the answer. You’re still alive after all.”

Papyrus nervously shifted. He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t like that question. He didn’t like the way human looked off, as if they were seeing something else within the dark trees. Their voice came out soft and mocking, not mocking him, but themselves.

“What’s wrong with believing?”

The human smiled, not taking their eyes off the trees. “It gets you killed.”

Papyrus had no reply to that. He mused, lightly fingering the snow at his feet. Abruptly, he grabbed his head. The human glanced back at the skeleton’s sudden action. Papyrus wheezed. It felt as if his head been hit by a jackhammer! He opened his jaws, a silent whine streaming out as he felt his skull swirl. His sockets felt as if they were about to burst. He felt his body scatter.

Light

A flash was what he registered and everything was thrown at him. Churning in a vortex, images he had never seen before shot through. White, snow, human, knife, bones, blood. He was standing with open arms, with a human standing before him, offering a hug. Papyrus smiled. Papyrus howled. A knife plunged into his neck, and he felt the betrayal, the pain, the hate. But more than that, he felt hope. Hope and belief. It overwhelmed him and swallowed him, and all the pain melted away. There was strange warmth blossoming inside him and he felt no dread. It’s okay. It’s okay to fall. It’s okay to die. Papyrus smiled.

The human stared back.

The skeleton opened his eyes, the warmth not leaving him. The human appeared, perhaps even in the slightest, concerned, although it could have been just Papyrus.

"I- I'm alright, just a headache. He sat up, rubbing his skull gently. Whatever he just saw, he had a feeling it was a memory of a reset. 

“Are you leaving?” They asked.

Papyrus looked down to his body spasm and twitch, throwing pieces all around. Emptiness pooled around his body, and Papyrus recognized it; a portal. He beamed, throwing them a disjointed grin.

“It seems so human!” He faltered, putting a hand to his mouth, “oh! But that means you’ll be all alone! Do not fear human, for I will be back!”

“…Chara.”

“Pardon?”

The human appeared miffed, looking off to the side with crossed arms, their knife waving about dangerously.

“Call me Chara. I don’t want you calling me human.”

Chara stole a glance of the skeleton. It was cringe worthy. He had the biggest smile they had ever seen, sockets lightened up with glee, their body quivering in excitement, their code twitching and spazzing everywhere. They shook their arms wildly, over joyed, sending particles of their body everywhere.

“CHARA! WE WILL MEET AGAIN SOON!!! WE SHALL ‘HANG OUT’ TOGETHER! WE CAN – “

And he was gone. Chara sighed, sitting back down on to the soft chilly snow. They wrapped the scarf tighter around them, enjoying the lingering impossible warmth. They wondered what was going to happen.

They wondered how the world was going to fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope it was goooodd!
> 
> so this was the chapter that i had just finished yesterday, so I don't know when the next chapter will be out since I'll be working on it.
> 
> hopefully in a few days! I hate to keep you guys waiting too long :D thanks for enjoying my fic!


	7. When you realize the person you waved to aint your friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a late update nnngh
> 
> I think this chapter is pretty bad cuz I lost my touch soooo I hope its okay??

* * *

 

 

Papyrus was thankful it was still bright out when he came back. Falling with a splat on the snow, he groaned. For some reason, the journey of going through the portals was exhausting, as brief they were. He looked to his arm once more. It had stopped glitching, thankfully, but still…  Papyrus couldn’t help but think what had happened back at the grand hall was not an accident.

 He sighed and allowed a brief moment of laziness, lying on the snow before getting right up. He looked to the woods and the town. By the looks of it, it was afternoon. You know what that means; time to recalibrate some puzzles! He hadn’t done so for two days, and Papyrus swooned from the thought. He was absolutely tardy! The thought made him jump more than anything. Jumping up to his feet, although the sudden movement did make his vision spin, he made swift exit to his brother’s post. Most of his puzzles were there anyway.

When he got to the puzzles, he was surprised to say the least when he saw Sans there. He watched his brother, not approaching yet, to see him move the pressure plates around, stopping time to time to think, then move them again, mumbling about the design. It was a strange sight. Puzzles and his brother was a combination Papyrus never thought he’d ever see, but there it was happening right before him. It made Papyrus want to scream in delight.

And that was exactly what he did.

Sans almost jumped out of his metaphorical skin, his bones reverberating at the sheer intensity of Papyrus’s voice. He turned to receive a literal breath taking hug that turned out to be more of a tackle, throwing him back in to the ice. Sans coughed, though there was no need for it, and craned his neck to look at his brother. He was a smiling, giggling warm mess. Resting a chin on his hollow stomach, the younger skeleton beamed up at his brother, cheek bones wrinkled at the utter impossibility of his smile that stretched at a contagious rate that even Sans couldn’t help but throw it right back; pure and genuine.

“Sup bro?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT’S UP BROTHER! YOU RECALIBERATED YOUR PUZZLE!!” Papyrus cackled.

Sans shrugged, doing his best to look indifferent. “Eh. It was too much work not to do it.”

Papyrus howled another chorus of ‘Nyeh heh heh!’ causing a chain reaction with San’s low gentle chuckle that gradually got louder as they lay sliding around the ice.

The two stayed like this for a while. Yes the ice was cold, but who cared? They were skeletons after all. Nothing really mattered if you were a skeleton made out of magic, love, and hope. Sans lay there, staring at the light the underground sky had to offer. He wished he could stay like this forever. The weight of his brother in his arms, the cold ice beneath him, and the gentle warmth that spread through his bones that consumed him and intoxicated him more than ketchup. He hummed, causing his brother to join him.

It was nice.

Everything was nice.

Sans closed his eyes and sighed. Papyrus turned his head once more to face Sans, not letting go of his grip on him.

“SANS?”

Sans tilted his head and couldn’t help his skull heat up. Papyrus’s face was way too close for comfort, only an inch away from his. If he had a throat, which he was thankful in not having, he was sure a gulp would’ve been loud enough to break the silence.

“Yeah bro?” He managed, _oh stars his face is so close._

Sans was hoisted up and thrown into a mound of snow, his upper torso immediately sinking right in.

“GET BACK TO WORK YOU LAZY BONES! NYEH HEH HEH!”

Sans listened to his brother’s quick footsteps fall distant and then silent. With that, he pulled himself out of the mound, brushing the snow off and shaking them out of his sockets. Ugh. He hated it when that happened. Still, he smiled. Normally, his brother’s crazy antics would have worn him down by now. But somehow, for some reason, he felt good. He still felt awake and surprisingly enough, he hadn’t napped the whole day!

Grin still on his face, Sans turned to work on his puzzle. He couldn’t wait till it was done.

 

* 

 

When night came, which was always difficult to tell despite living underground forever, Sans decided against his shortcut. One main reason he always used it was, well, he was tired. Walking took too long, why bother when you can be there in mere seconds? There was no need to see the same sights, the same things over and over again. He knew it all by now. In two minutes, monster kid would barge out of the library and fall onto his face, Doggo would be walking towards the store for more dog treats, and a rabbit would be taking the garbage out. So really, there was no need to see it all. No need for the constant reminder that he was stuck in a moment until someone stopped it all.

So the reason he even decided to walk today was baffling. Well, Sans justified his actions with an easy answer. He just felt like it today. He walked to the library and leaned by the wall, waiting for the kid to rush out so he could help him up.

“Three, two, one..”

Snow started to fall. Sans blinked. That’s… strange. It never snows today. Snow usually came the next day. He reached an arm out to the flakes, catching one. It was the real deal all right. Once, a monster had decided to prank everyone there was a blizzard that was to strike Snowdin, but all they had received was ripped up plastic foam from the garbage. Heh, it was definitely a prank Sans enjoyed. But now was certainly not the time.

He eyed monster kid running out from the corner which led to the ferry, rushing past him and into the library. Three minutes. A minute difference, and monster kid wasn’t coming out of the library, but the other way around. Sans stared, hand still midair. Something inside him twisted. I made him feel sick.

It didn’t make sense.

It was impossible.

It was absurd.

It was preposterous.

It was out of the question.

It. Didn’t. make. Sense.

Sans felt the pinpricks of his eyes fade from his sockets. He turned. The rabbit wasn’t out yet. Doggo was walking with lesser dog, heading towards Grillbys. Sans could feel his insides hollow out. Fishing out his pocket watch, he glared at the offending object. Two minutes. The rabbit was still not out. Three minutes. Doggo was already in Grillbys. Four minutes. Rabbit finally came out, but this time he wasn’t wearing his usual green sweater and white sweat pants. White jacket and turquoise shorts. Sans trembled. He couldn’t stop his shaking. This didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. The pocket watch slipped from his loose grip, dropping on to the snow. H hadn’t even realized he had dropped it until the gravity (heh…) of the situation had sunk in. Sans carefully picked it up, barely able to grab the watch. Sans slowly kneeled down, forcing himself to relax. It felt as if he was choking, choking on the slow realization that the world that he lived in was not the one he knew.

The skeleton pulled his hood up, shakily getting up. He had to get to his lab. Turning to the woods, he allowed himself to drop – landing unsteadily in his lab. He tore his jacket off, rushing at the table and digging through his papers. There must be an answer here, there must be. Maybe an anomaly? A glitch in the world? Was it due to a reset in another timeline? Sans tore through the documents, his soul racing faster and faster. His hands clenched tight and his boned ached. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Sans ripped the drawer out with a  cry, throwing it to the side. There had to be an answer. He rifled through the cabinet. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Sans clutched his head. He could feel his magic building up, his eye flashing violently. A pounding thump screamed inside his hollow skull, threatening to over take him. Sans grounded his teeth, his permanent smile painful and prominent. He wanted to rip it off. He violently clawed at his skull, digging distal phalanges in as deep as he could possibly get. He wanted to rip his bones off. Sans panted, body slowly crouching into a fetal position. He could feel his magic clobbering the sides of his temples, writhing like a venomous snake, biting poison into his system.

“What’s going on, what’s going on.”

Sans chanted over and over, rocking his body. Slamming his fists onto the sides of his skull he screamed.

_I thought I had it handled, I thought I had it all figure out, why, why are you doing this to me, what the fuck do you want, why the fuck are doing this?? What the fuck are you doing, why fucking me!_

Sans cried. He cried his frustration out. It was too much. Allowing his weakness to take over, he succumbed to his fear; the fear of losing control. And he had. He no longer had control. He no longer knew. He hated this, this false hope that everything was fine. He hated the world, for lying to him with a smile that seemed too bright to be true, and most of all Sans hated himself; for believing it all.

What an idiot.

He lay curled on the cold floor, letting his tears pool around his socket and fall with a gentle, rhythmic ‘tap’. Between the self loathing and frustration, Sans lay in the limbo of numbness. His bones cold to the touch he wouldn’t mind if he had turned to dust right there and then. Someone as pathetic and useless like him deserved it.

He thought things were getting better. That maybe, despite all this, he could gain happiness. He was wrong. He was so wrong, what a fool. What a  –

Sans sat up.

No. That wasn’t it. There was something else. He wiped the tears off, scavenging through the littered paper on the floor. There was one rule of this world that was carefully engraved in his head. The basics of physics, with an acting force, there will always be an outcome. If there is a change in this life he knew like the back of his hand, then… It could mean a change in the timelines. A change in the resets, a change in the system.

Sans felt a spark in his soul. A change. An anomaly that could possibly modify the time space continuum to an extent where factors will no longer remain the same. Where the factors could differ. Where the possibilities could further more than what he had witnessed. A potential for a better chance in this wretched thing he called life. An opportunity for him to actually live. An opportunity for the monsters to go to the surface and never come back.

The skeleton sat stock still in the revelation. As his ideas tumbled out, his shoulders shook. His whole body shook. A small noise escaped his skeletal smile.

“Heh.”

Sans laughed, body shaking uncontrollably without fail. He felt the warmth spread inside him and he didn’t try to stop it. You know that feeling, don’t you? When you realize, for once in your life, you have a chance. A chance to make things right. A chance to fix things. A chance to finally do something and know that you could actually make a difference. That feeling that starts from the bottom of your toes and slowly crawls up, sending your nerves in a spiral of giddy excitement, playing with your emotions as you cry and laugh, your mind in a battle of whether you should curl up and sob your soul out or yell in pure joy. Best described, Sans found himself in a liminal situation. So he cried and laughed and danced, throwing the strewn paper all around. The skeleton twirled in the dimly lit, old and dusty lab, humming a simple old tune, closing his sockets and letting his voice echo. Finally.

Things were going to change.

He had to get to work immediately.

There was no way he wasn’t going to allow this anomaly do whatever it wanted in his timeline without him knowing it. He had to track this anomaly and monitor its actions, figure out what it’ll change, where it came from, and most importantly, how he could manipulate to his will. If he could do that, find the power to use this anomaly to his own advantage, then, well, Sans was sure it would be the key to changing the resets and timelines. Sans allowed the grin to creep up his face. It had been a while since he started working again, and honestly? It was exciting.

The ex-scientist shook the white sheet off the machine, dust flying everywhere. He took a step back, letting the dust settle around him like a new blizzard of snow. It was so strange to see it again, still in its shape, large and intimidating. All it was in another’s eyes was a pile of metal stuck together in a strange rectangular fashion, maybe a strange tv. But to him it struck something deep inside. An old memory that shouldn’t exist, fuzzy and crooked embedded with a history that brought terror inside him. It was a symbol of failure, the constant reminder that he couldn’t do anything, that he was powerless, lacking the knowledge to save everyone. It was a thorn on his side, and he couldn’t take it out. So he hid it. Like putting a band aid over an infected wound, hoping that no one would notice, that everything would be okay. And so here it was before him, looming over in its routed spot, questioning why it was unveiled.

Sans stepped forward and flicked on the switch. It rumbled. Engines purring back to life, fans reeling, lights flashing. The large monitor flickered, trying to stabilize, throwing light over the skeleton as he smiled on. He no longer held contempt towards the machine. Now, it was something else. It was his salvation.  

The skeleton turned about, looking for his lab coat. He wasn’t surprised when he couldn’t found it. A lot of things from the lab had been thrown away; too painful to look at. Sans shrugged. He’ll just have to find another one, or make one.

Walking out of his lab, he headed out to see if Papyrus was back. Sure enough, the moment he opened the door, warm spaghetti flavored air greeted him like a kiss, and Sans scurried down at the sweet initiation, soul starving.

“You’re awfully cheery today.” Sans muttered with half lidded sockets.

Papyrus turned. He had been shifting heel to toe, bobbing up and down while turning the sauce. He giggled his contagious giggle, hand on hip, the other twirling the wooden spoon around.

Cute.

“BROTHER! I WOULD SAY THE SAME TO YOU! DID SOMETHING HAPPEN? DID YOUR PUZZLE TURN OUT FANTASTIC?”

Sans grunted a reply, doing his best to contain his own enthusiasm, and leaned towards his brother’s shoulder to look at the sauce. The heat blew into his face, the scent caressing his cheekbones. Sans conjured a blue tongue, flicking it out in hunger. Papyrus made a noise, disgruntled by his brother’s beastly ways.

“BROTHER! MANNERS! TAKE THAT TONGUE BACK WHERE IT BELONGS!”

“I can’t. smells too good. Gotta eat.” The tongue dribbled drool. Papyrus screeched.

“AWAY FROM MY SPAGHETTI YOU UNCOUTH, SLIMY BLUE BEAST!”

In one swift movement, Papyrus grabbed the tongue with his hand, and shoved it back into San’s mouth, cackling.

“HOW’S THE TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE BROTHER!” Papyrus laughed, removing his hand, wiping the drool on his apron. Sans stared dumbfounded, unable to speak for a moment. _It tastes pretty fricking sweet._

“You got me bro. In fact, I think I might need more, I’m feeling so sick, I can’t tell if I’m alive or dead.”

“THAT WASN’T VERY FUNNY.”

Sans shrugged, “not the best I came up with.”

His eyes flickered to his brother’s neck. “Where’s your scarf?”

Papyrus jolted, almost dropping the wooden spoon. He felt his bones go cold, hands fidgeting, trying not to immediately reach up to his neck, because there was no need; he had left it with Chara. He forced himself to look at his brother, his body itching under the scrutiny. He lifted a smile.

“IT GOT DIRTY! SO I LEFT IT IN THE WASHING MACHINE.”

Papyrus grinded his teeth in anxiety, hoping his brother bought it. And he did to his relief.

Sans stuck a finger into the spaghetti sauce against his brother’s wishes and hummed. The strong flavor of basil melted into his mouth and the meat seemed to dissolve with the tomato in his mouth. He licked his bony finger clean, reaching to get another dip, only to have it slapped away by a very annoyed chef. Glad to have something else to pay his mind to, Papyrus gave him a peeved look before pushing him to the side with his hips, hoisting the pot away from him.

“DO MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND BRING THE PLATES BROTHER.”

Sans waved his arm dramatically in the air, bowing slightly, “as you wish, your chef-ness.”

Papyrus rolled his sockets, but couldn’t help his smile.

 

 

 Dinner went smoothly, and though they always had to package the leftovers into the kitchen, Sans had eaten everything up to his brother’s absolute delight. Sans got up from the sofa, heading up stairs. He had to start working. But the older brother found himself pulled back, a small tug stopping his track. Papyrus held the corner of his jacket, arm stretched out and body slumped on the couch. It looked like a desperate reach, as if Papyrus had hurried to hold on, body still moving and eyes darting. Sans turned when his brother’s grip on his jacket dropped, the extended limb retracting with a timid mumble.

“AH, UM, SANS WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” he asked.

Sans shrugged, shoving his hands back into his pockets. There was no way he was going to tell Papyrus.

“Well, I’m pretty bone-tired, I think I might hit the hay.”

Sans couldn’t help but notice the disappointment flash across his brother’s features, before Papyrus snapped back into his smile. The younger skeleton nodded, pushing himself back into his usual spot on the lumpy sofa.

“YES BROTHER, YOU WORKED VERY HARD TODAY! YOU DESERVE A GOOD NIGHT’S NAP! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE DOWN HERE, THINKING OF MORE PUZZLES TO CREATE TOMORROW!”

Sans chortled. His brother was already giddy from the thought, bouncing on the already springy couch at the mere idea of creating something new. He hesitated for a moment, and then leaned forward, petting his hand on top of Papyrus’s skull. Papyrus stopped, sockets searching his own, and Sans tore their gaze away, feeling strangely uncomfortable. He grunted a good night, making his way upstairs, trying to guise the giddiness slowly rising up from the bottom of his being.

Papyrus watched his brother go, hands clenched so tight, any tighter and his phalanges might break. Hearing the door click close, he allowed the rush of air escape him. What was he thinking, grabbing his brother like that? It was out of ordinary for him. He shouldn’t have done that. Papyrus looked to his side where his brother would be sitting if he was still downstairs. For tonight, all he really wanted was to spend some time with his brother, to just sit in the living room while blankly watching at the television, consuming the flickering visuals side by side. When Sans had petted him on his head, his soul felt like it had seized up, thoughts rushing in of; ‘does he know?’

Papyrus sank into the couch, letting the white noise of the tv wash over him. He rubbed his neck where his scarf would’ve been. He felt bare, almost naked. The skeleton stood up, tired of the tv.  He retired back into his room, turning the tv off and clicking the controller onto the couch. Quietly closing the door, he opened his closet and rummaged through, finding a faded dark blue scarf. It was the one he used to wear when he was little, and although it was much too small for him now, he still wrapped it around his neck, finding comfort in the cloth full of memories of the past. With a deep breath, he went back into the kitchen, knowing what was going to come next he closed his eyes.

_I almost thought you weren’t coming._

He didn’t have to open his eyes to know that he was back in the darkness; he could feel it.

_What happened to your scarf?_

Papyrus fingered the blue material, feeling the other’s gaze bore right into it.  Why did Gaster look so… mad?

“I GAVE IT TO CHARA.”

Gaster’s body rolled back, his slime jolting backwards as if he was hit. Papyrus panicked at his friend’s reaction, quickly approaching with out-stretched arms.

“G-Gaster ARE YOU ALL RIGHT? W-WHATS THE MATTER?”

The black mass held a hand out, sparing Papyrus from approaching any closer. He collected himself, body bobbing in rhythm with his breath.

_Where did you meet Chara?_

“IN THE GRAND HALL. THE DREAM THAT I TOLD YOU ABOUT? I DO BELIEVE IT IS NOT A DREAM.”

Gaster slowly nodded in agreement. Papyrus stood, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. There was a question he wanted to ask, but he wasn’t sure if he should.

“Gaster? DID… THAT HUMAN KILL EVERYONE IN THAT TIMELINE?”

Gaster spent no second in answer his question with a nod, dismissing the question entirely as he mulled over another thought. Papyrus wrapped his arms around himself. So then. The human really was bad? Was there no way for him to change their mind. Papyrus shook the thought away. No, they gave their name to him! They had sat next to each other and they had accepted his scarf! Surely he could change them to not do a violence. He looked to Gaster. The monster continued to rub his hands together, making symbols with them time to time while muttering unintelligible words under his breath. He looked at Papyrus up and down, hand placed on his chin.

_Papyrus, how did you get to the timeline and back? The timeline where you met Chara._

“WELL, I ALWAYS SEEM TO ARRIVE THERE WHEN I FALL ASLEEP AND I COME BACK THROUGH A PORTAL.”

Gaster nodded after while, features still frowning. _Ah well, there’s nothing we can do about it for now. I will try to figure it out while you go._

Papyrus wryly smiled. “AH YES, OF COURSE I SHOULD GET GOING.”

But Papyrus did not move. He shuffled his feet, looking down at the ground. He didn’t want to go. A voice nudged him at the back of his mind; ‘you have to, if you don’t Sans will have his burden again, you know that don’t you?’ But knowing such a fact didn’t stop him from feeling the dread crawl up his spine. Balling up a fist, Papyrus placed a hand against the empty wall. No, he just had to think positive. Perhaps, he’ll go to a nice place this time! Yes, he had to think positive. It’s all he had. Papyrus glanced back at Gaster who  looked back with expectation. And he couldn’t let his new friend down.

Papyrus concentrated on the familiar buzz beneath his gloved hand, feeling the wall disintegrate and fade away, allowing him to open up a door way to another world. The white space welcomed him, lulling his body in its domain. But where? How? He tried to think of a ‘nice’ place to go to. He imagined snow, the warmth of indoors and that old lumpy sofa, his brother with his reassuring smile. He wanted to go there. That’s where he wanted to go. But another thought quivered. Another place where he had been, hard walls all gray and dull, and a crying figure with eyes too sad to let the images go. As if the white space knew he had made up his mind, it formed its colorful portal and Papyrus dived in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just wanna say I love you to everyone that likes my fic hehe you guys are awesome!!  
> you guys are so funny XD


	8. You got something in between your teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mann I'm awfully sorry for the late update ;-;  
> but its here so huzzah!  
> Hope y'all enjoy!  
> Hope I didnt make any mistakes *sobs*

* * *

 

 

 

It hurt

It hurt

It hurts

This was not what Papyrus was expecting. Upon jumping through the portal, the skeleton felt something. A tightening. The portal seemed to stretch forever, getting longer and longer and he felt a twitch around his neck. It was questioning, wondering what was around his neck, before it became aggressive, the strange feeling around his neck contracting until he felt himself choke. It flared angrily, glitching and twisting, flashes of incomprehensible words darting as it tried to figure out what this strange new anomaly was. Papyrus gasped, breathe tight. He reached his hands up, grabbing at the scarf. His gloved hands screamed in contact, the intense sensation similar to being electrocuted. If a skeleton could go blue, Papyrus was very sure his face would resemble the color of his brother’s jacket. Why wasn’t the portal ending? It felt as if it had no end.

Barreling through the colorful filtered space, he could feel the small Prussian blue scarf stretch, longer and longer, his gloves spasming in sync. The tips of his boots felt as if they were being pulled and Papyrus felt as if his whole body was being stretched out as he hurled down the never ending portal.

And he was out.

Stiff as a skeleton, Papyrus landed in a heap, head still reeling from the travel. He audibly groaned, sparks shooting up his spine. What had just happened? Was this part of the burden? Papyrus openly whined like a child. He really didn’t want to go through that again. He reached up for his neck when he noticed his gloves, mouth slightly ajar in surprise. Prussian blue.

His gloves were no longer red.

The same color as his small scarf, papyrus stretched his arms out, trying to look at his gloves from afar, wandering if his eyes were tricking him. They weren’t and sure enough, there they were, still blue as the dark night in snowdin. Papyrus was stunned. He touched his scarf and pulled it off.

“WOWIE…”

It had become long, the same length, or perhaps even longer than his original scarf. Papyrus took his glove off, feeling the scarf from the tips down. It felt strange under his touch, still moving, as if tiny little things were living within the material. It felt as if it was still changing, shifting about, playing with the matter. And it was. The tip of the scarf was turning red, and it was slowly spreading. Papyrus watched as the color spread but shortly stop, and all together the shifting was gone. Like watching a chameleon go halfway through its change, most of the scarf was still its Prussian color, but the tip was red, leaving soft hues of purple where the two clashing colors would’ve clashed.

Papyrus sat there on the cold cement for a while, staring at his new scarf, trying to figure out what had happened. He glanced at his boots, also the same color. After a while, the skeleton reluctantly pulled the scarf over and around his neck, rolling it around until it felt just right, letting the loose end sway behind him like a cape. He was… okay with this. Yes, of course he was okay with this. He had to. Standing up with shaky legs, papyrus walked out of the dull kitchen. There was no need to dilly dally. He knew why he was here and there was no time to lose.

Going up stairs, he listened intently for any movement. Upon greeted by silence, he slowly creaked open what would’ve been his door.

Inside was a stench of iron, thick and heavy with another scent that Papyrus could not quite make out. It sent shivers down his spine and made his magic tremble. The darkness gave nothing away and so the skeleton forced himself to step in, conjuring up a glowing blue bone to light his way. The room felt barer than before, and covered with what seemed like white debris. Papyrus bent down, holding one up to his eyes. What was it? It seemed so familiar from its color, to the small cracks and tiny pore-like holes –

Papyrus immediately conjured up more bones at lightning speed, aiming it at the source of the small noise. He considered in summoning his special attack but upon closer inspection with his cyan blue bone, he knew there was no need. The fear was replaced with dread and horror.

On the floor near the corner of the room was him – no – not him – the other him, lying down with a thin sheet that covered his lower spine. The ground around him was pooled with dry blood. Papyrus wasn’t sure how he didn’t see him the moment he walked in. With a moment of hesitance, papyrus rushed over, hands hovering, unsure what to do and afraid to cause any more pain. The lying skeleton was covered in bruises, dry blood and chipped bones, body curled up into a small, weak ball. The collar was still there, chained sternly to the wall. With shaking hands, Papyrus touched his head.

The skeleton opened his eyes, and his expression changed quickly from dismay, to shock to anger. He tried to get up and as Papyrus reached out to help, he immediately flinched away.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, voice barely audible.

Papyrus fumbled, wringing his fingers. “I CAME TO RESCUE YOU!”

The other him managed a small smile before his face turned stony. He shook his head, resting it once again on the cold floor.

“Thank you Papyrus. But you have to go. Please. There’s nothing you can do.”     

Papyrus was taken aback. Why didn’t he want to be saved? Didn’t he want to be saved? Papyrus was speechless. Other him wasn’t responding, eyes glued to the floor. Papyrus couldn’t take it. He couldn’t see him like this. He took hold of the thin sheet and yanked it off. That always did the trick with Sans.

But he wished he hadn’t this time.

Papyrus felt sick.

Other him mirrored his look of horror. Desperately he tried to sit up, putting his arms behind him, trying to keep them away from view. Of course this act was pointless as he was a skeleton, and Papyrus could see it just as clearly.

“WHERE… WHAT… YOUR HANDS…!”

They weren’t there.

Their eyes locked with one another, more so their sockets, and Papyrus couldn’t look away. So much pain, so much sorrow. Other him sighed, trying to laugh.

“It’s nothing.”

Papyrus threw his arms up in a fit of rage.

“NOTHING? IT IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING, YOU CANNOT FOOL THE GREAT PAPYRUS! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HANDS FOR GRACIOUS SAKE! WHERE ARE THEY!”

The other him instinctively brought his arm out, trying to gesture his hand to calm Papyrus down, but upon remembering that he didn’t have them, he brought it back down. Another sigh. another turn of the head to the floor. His sight darted to the small white debris, eyeing each of them before looking back at Papyrus knowingly. It finally sunk in.

Oh.

Papyrus REALLY felt sick.

“It’s a form of punishment I guess.” The other slightly shrugged, wincing at the mere action.

Papyrus was rooted to the spot. He wasn’t sure what to do anymore. He was at loss for words. In the quiet space between the two, papyrus finally moved. He placed his hands on the hard wall. With concentration and determination, he held back his joy at the success of creating the portal and kneeled down to the other skeleton.

“Let’s go.” He whispered.

And before the other him could try to talk him out, jagged bones struck his chains and Papyrus scooped him up, cradling him tight. He was so light, as if his bones were filled with nothing but air. He held onto him like a lifeline. But as luck would have it, the sinking feeling of panic sprung upon impact of the portal.

His other couldn’t get through.

On contact there was a flash and a hiss. The skeleton in his arms gritted his teeth trying to shoulder the pain away. Papyrus looked down and eyed his arm, burnt with flashes of orange flickering out. Papyrus quickly settled him back down on the ground, wrapping the sheet tighter. He covered the wound with his hands, trying to fix it, but he felt his magic bounce back. Papyrus whined in alarm, trying to think of something else. There must be another way!

Other him sat quietly, watching Papyrus become more and more distressed by the minute. It felt nice, seeing someone else, although in retrospect himself, be worried about him. It had been a while since anyone cared. The skeleton smiled and nudged Papyrus lightly with his toes, giving him a reassuring look. There was no need for him to be here. More or less, it would put him under jeopardy.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. The fact that you came back for me is… Enough.”

The skeleton couldn’t help but let out a half hearted laugh at his distraught expression. He knew exactly he was thinking of. He opened his arms and Papyrus dove in to it, spewing apologies as his sockets watered. His bones groaned at the weight and his bruises stung, but he paid them no mind. He allowed himself this small moment of bliss.

The two stayed like so for a while, each afraid to let go.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I’m sorry… What kind of a friend am I…”

“The best kind.”

And he lightly pushed him off to look into his eyes, the ends of his ulna and radius lightly nudging Papyrus to properly look at him

“Remember that, okay?”

He nodded, leaning forward to tap the other’s forehead with his teeth. He didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to leave him behind. Awkwardly getting up, Papyrus stood back, eyes not daring to let the other out of his sight. He backed into the portal, fists squeezed tight.

“I’ll find a way. I’ll be back. I promise.”

 

*

 

He knew he couldn’t go back yet, Gaster would be disappointed.

And Papyrus wasn’t the type to disappoint his friends.

So upon entering back into the white void of codes, he wafted his hand through the symbols. It was strange. Despite having the lack of knowledge towards it, he felt as if he knew what he was doing. Sliding his fingers across the skittering numbers and letters, he could feel something else beyond the symbols, like an image. Sliding his hand in between, he pulled the code apart, creating another portal. There was a twinge of happiness at his success, but the guilt and anxiety bit at his bones. What now? What this time? Papyrus wasn’t sure if he could handle another sight of himself broken on the floor, and even more so, he couldn’t handle the fact knowing that perhaps, he couldn’t help.

The portal glowed in its red and black hue, the edges trembling as it morphed about like coiled snakes. It was getting impatient, Papyrus thought, and reluctantly he walked through.

What first caught his eye, or should he dare say his eye socket, was how white the kitchen was. Stepping out and letting the portal close behind him, he marveled at the sleek surfaces, it reminded him of Alphy’s lab, but much cleaner.

Time to investigate.

Determined not to let Gaster down, Papyrus knew he had to find new information about this new timeline. Exact same layout as his kitchen, Papyrus opened the tall sink, bemused as it had bones in it just like his, he felt more elated seeing pantries with tomato sauces and different spices along with dry noodles. How wonderful, this Papyrus must also love Spaghetti! After thorough investigation of the kitchen, the skeleton peeked out. The living room was spotless and – gasp – could it be?

No sock!

Papyrus lay his hand over his chest. Never had he thought he would see such an achievement, done by another Papyrus nonetheless! He just had to see him. Papyrus ran up, excited, and paused to examine the door. It was a little different than his, signs of ‘Come in and I’ll kill you’ and ‘If you want to die go ahead’ littered all over the door. Papyrus scratched his chin. Perhaps this Papyrus was trying to be tough? Papyrus flared his chest. Well, He could teach him to be tough! He knocked three times consecutively before letting his loud voice erupt.

“HELLO OTHER PAPYRUS! ARE YOU THERE?”

When he received no reply, Papyrus decided to wait. He leaned against the wall next to the door, tapping his gloved fingers alongside his radius. He didn’t mind waiting. He did a lot of it before. It wasn’t new.

He must have waited for quite a long time, because Papyrus was barely the one to nap. Or maybe he didn’t have the over whelming energy as he always thought he had. Sockets slowly drooping and chin slowly coming to a rest against his chest, the skeleton was out while standing up. Perhaps it was misfortune or fate, in his sleep the door adjacent creaked open.

A skeleton, not too tall but not too short walked out from the right, eyes crimson red and teeth sharp to the edge, a single golden tooth standing out like a sore thumb. He hummed, voice deep yet ragged, eyes half closed in an effort to keep them up. The skeleton shuffled out eyes glued to the floor, pace slow and slumped, had he not seen the strange out of place blue boot in his line of vision, he may have not noticed him at all.

 Eyes tracing upwards the skeleton gave an audible yelp, jumping back with splayed hands. His soul was pounding in his rib cage and he stayed stock still, unsure what to do, he waited for the sleeping skeleton to do something, attack him, but he didn’t. The skeleton gritted his teeth, shuffling forward little by little until he was in range. Who was this monster? What were they doing in his house?  And how come he had never seen him before? In range, he could hear them snore and the skeleton sighed, dropping his stance. Wow, sleeping in a stranger’s house? Rude much. The skeleton briefly wondered if he should call his brother, seeing as he would immediately pick up his phone. But he decided against it. He was out hunting for humans near the ruins, and if he called, he would scream at him and give another lecture on how noises could scare humans according to his research. No, he could handle this problem himself.

He poked the monster. When they didn’t respond, the skeleton growled, annoyed, and without a second thought shoved the skeleton. Papyrus woke up, body twisting to right himself and keep balance. Rapidly blinking the sleep out of his head, Papyrus waved with enthusiasm at the new skeleton.

“GREETINGS!! ”

Papyrus looked at the skeleton up and down.  “MY! WHAT A SWAZZY OUTFIT YOU HAVE ON!”

The skeleton made a gesture of raising their eyebrows, a strangely possible feat for a skeleton and brought an arm out. Papyrus knew this action and immediately clasped their hands together, only to be violently electrocuted. He jumped in the air and stumbled back while the smaller skeleton laughed.

“Don’t you know how to greet a new pal? _Never shake their hands._ ”

Papyrus, stunned, reverted back to himself and smiled, clapping his hand with giddiness. He had learnt something new of this timeline! Gaster would be pleased.

“THANK YOU FOR YOUR INFORMATION, ER, WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”

The skeleton stared at the skeleton for a moment before stretching his grin once more, shrugging. He must be dealing with some looney monster who didn’t mind high voltage. There was no harm to telling his name.

“Sans.”

Papyrus gasped, clapping his hands once more. This must be his other brother! Now that he looked, Papyrus could see the similarities, from the shape of the skull to his size, and even his stance! Despite timelines, some things just don’t change huh? Papyrus continued to look. He didn’t seem that dangerous, unlike the other sans.

Giddy with excitement at his new discovery, Papyrus struck a pose, placing a hand on his hip and the other on his chest.

“GREETINGS SANS! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

Creaking an eye open to see the skeleton’s reaction, he was delighted with the reception. Sans had stepped back, eyes large in bewilderment and hands out of his pockets.  Wowie! He must be so shocked!

Sans stared at the skeleton. If Papyrus was pulling a prank on him, it was effective and out of tune. His brother would never pull a prank, nevertheless show case himself. Digging into his memory, Sans realized Papyrus did quite enjoy showing himself off. But not like this. And even if it was his brother dressed as ridiculous as this skeleton was, the similarities were barely there. All he could see between the two was their height and their voice. Other than that…This wasn’t his brother. This wasn’t papyrus.

Sans laughed, sliding his bony hands back into his pocket. What a joke. He threw his head back, cackling. Papyrus chorused his laughter, the familiar “Nye heh heh” a little too similar.

“Good one, heh, you got me there. All right then _Papyrus,_ What you up to?”

Sans decided to humor the monster and follow along. There was nothing to do anyway, and it was out of the norm that he was used to. It was still a few weeks until the human came, so this distraction was pretty fine with him. Maybe later he’ll get the truth out of him in why he was posing as the real Papyrus. A rabid fan? Sans ruled the possibility out.

Papyrus looked about, seemingly to be in deep thought. After a moment, he marched down, appearing to be eager with his spontaneous idea.

“How about Grillbys?”

Sans bristled. Whoever this monster was, he wasn’t doing a good job trying to act like his brother. Papyrus never went to Grillby’s let alone say the name. He called it the ‘Grease Pot’ and spat the name with such venom, Sans was sure one of these days he would literally burn the whole place down if he could. He wasn’t going to complain however and without oral confirmation he walked out of the front door, tracking along behind the skeleton. He decided he wasn’t going to point out anything. Maybe the skeleton will reveal his scheme later on.

Papyrus stepped out, delighted with the familiarity of the snow that enveloped the town. He noticed the differences however, such as the lack of Christmas tree in the middle of the town and lack of presents along with their house having no more colorful lights that he quite took pleasure in. Instead there was a large stuffed rabbit in the centre, colorful eggs of different sizes surrounding the rabbit. Papyrus approached the large black bear in a red sweatshirt in front of the monument, who seemed engrossed with painting a small white egg.

“EXCUSE ME SIR, BUT WHAT IS ALL THIS?”

The black bear didn’t bother turning around but answered anyway, “some kids’ve been terrorizin the rabbits  and throwin rotten eggs at ‘em. The town’s in return made a big stuffed rabbit as apology and been  making colorful eggs around the rabbit. It’s tradition now.”

Papyrus responded with an echo of ‘ooooh’ and knelt down to look at the eggs. Each egg seemed to show personality from their creator, one egg bearing pictures of glamburgers while another being littered with crudely drawn rectangle boxes. And more than half the eggs surrounding the rabbit were decorated with red and blue bones.

Sans watched the imposter Papyrus chat with the other monster, asking permission to contribute to the egg pile. This skeleton… He wasn’t doing a very good job copying his brother. Did he even do his research? Sans shrugged. It wasn’t his deal. And to think so much about it was too much of a hassle. He turned and headed for Grillbys.

Papyrus, with his strong level on concentration, did not notice Sans go. Instead he pulled in all his effort to the decoration of the egg, pouring everything he had in it. An hour passed and Papyrus settled the egg amongst the others triumphantly.

“NYEH HEH HEH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS STRIKES AGAIN WITH HIS AMAZING WORK!”

The egg had a small drawing of two skeletons, it was so miniscule it may as well be two other monsters that could possibly be so small. Patterns of zig-zagged bones streamed top and bottom as margins, one row cyan and the other orange. The partially distinguishable skeletons bore a big grin.

“SANS LOOK AT – SANS?”

Papyrus groaned. Of course Sans wasn’t going to wait around, he was too lazy for that! His timeline or not, Sans was probably already at Grillbys. Well, he was the one to suggest the place anyway. Papyrus applied small pressure to the door to peek into the bar. There were monster there, as always, but they all looked slightly different. They looked unhappy, disgruntled and well, the best word for it was; more red.

Papyrus slowly walked in, keeping his back to the door. The dogs had their snouts pushed into their game of what appeared to be poker, dog bones and dog treats pushed to the centre as they growled and snapped at each other. The other monsters appeared to be passed out, and the place reeked of oil and alcohol.

It was worse than his timeline.

Papyrus gingerly walked to where he could see Sans sitting. Usually he would walk right up, lecture Sans, and take him home. But he had to remind himself that this was not home. He had to remind himself he didn’t belong here, and thus, should not behave like himself. He had to be weary of how they could be culturally different, just as Sans had demonstrated. He slipped into the seat next to Sans. Despite this not being his brother and strange that he had to call him the name of his brother, Papyrus didn’t shy away from calling him by that name.

“Sans, what are you having?” papyrus asked with lowered voice. He didn’t want to create a stir.

Sans chugged his bottle of mustard as reply, downing the last half down and pushing it to the side for Papyrus to examine. He clicked his phalanges, prompting Grillby to hand him another. Papyrus smelled the empty glass bottle.

“At least my brother’s taste is similar to Spaghetti, yours don’t even have the color red!”

Sans rested his heavy head on his arms, twirling his bottle around. “You have a brother?”

Papyrus paused. Should he tell this sans about the other timelines? Was there harm to come from his actions? Papyrus mulled over his thoughts. He still didn’t quite understand all the fundamentals of timelines and himself being a ‘timeline hopper’ described by the other sans in the previous timeline. He wasn’t sure of many things. And if this was the sans in this timeline, then perhaps he knew of the burden as well. That meant he already knew most of what Papyrus knew, and perhaps even better. Papyrus figured that the best way to learn more of this timeline was to gain the trust of someone, and that meant telling the truth. Who knows, perhaps he would learn even more in return.

“Yes, his name is also Sans.”

The red eyed skeleton scoffed, “heh, wow what a coincidence.”

“Yes… He –well, I also – am from a different timeline.”

 

The noise in the bar stopped. As if time stood still, the air seemed to have frozen also. Papyrus looked around, realizing no one was moving, bodies stock still like pictures on a wall. Sans slowly shifted in his seat, his head low and his shoulders high. His voice came out harsh and strangled, each word punctured with threat.

“What do you know about timelines.”

Papyrus gulped. Papyrus usually didn’t feel fear, but to hear such a tone of menace come from someone who was essentially his brother in a way, it shook his bones. Without intention, his voice wavered, “I, well, I don’t know a whole lot about timelines, truth be told I am still learning! A great learner actually! I am also more from, I believe, a different alternate timeline, not just a different timeline, seeing as things are different here – “

Sans roughly grabbed the rambling skeleton’s scarf and brought him to his eye level. His eyes flashed dangerously, his permanent jagged smile turned upside down into a snarl.

“We need to talk. Shut up and follow me, understand?”

Papyrus nodded. He pushed him away and resumed his position as if nothing happened. Then time seemed to move once more. Grillby was cleaning the same glass, and dogs were bickering angrily amongst themselves. Sans pocketed his new bottle of mustard and slipped off his seat, heading out, Papyrus quickly on his tail.

Exiting the door Papyrus felt the familiar sensation. They were in an alley next to the hotel near the core.

“Teleportation?”

Sans gave no response. He leaned his weight against the wall, pulling his hood up and bringing the mustard bottle out.

“Tell me everything,” he conjured up a blaster Gaster, similar to his, but more intimidating, eyes fire red and teeth sharp as can be, its size over whelmed his as it loomed over him, mouth open ajar, “and don’t leave out any details.”

 

And so he did. He told him everything.

 

San’s expression altered throughout, from irritation, to amusement, to awe and back to irritation. Papyrus told him about the glitch, about creating portals and the different timeline that he previously visited. He told him the dreams he had, the visions he saw, and the burden that he took from his brother. For a reason Papyrus could not quite think of Sans appeared conflicted, hurt, and perhaps betrayed. When Papyrus was done talking, the two stood parallel to each other, quiet and somber.

“So the… Your brother Sans, the other Sans, he… He doesn’t have it anymore?”

Papyrus nodded.

Sans looked at his shoes and pushed a small pebble in between, shuffling them around. He seemed to be lost for words. Papyrus couldn’t read his expression, his head lowered down.

“… You did that for him?”

Realizing he couldn’t see him nod, Papyrus said “yes.”

“Must be nice to have such a brother huh?” His was thick and strangled. Papyrus approached in concern.

“It’s just what brothers do.”

“Not all brothers.”

Sans pulled a sleeve to his face and finally looked up, his skeletal features repressing what could have been sorrow. As just as quickly as Papyrus saw them, it changed to a lazy smirk, eyes half drooped and a grin stretching from cheek bone to cheek bone.

“So you’re here to learn about our timeline huh? Well why don’t you come along, I’ll give you a tour. Beats doing work.”

And the two were back at Snowdin, the door of Grillby’s closing softly behind them.


	9. Dust in the wind Kansas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the awfully late update, and more impoartantly, I'm sorry it's rather short ;-;  
> Uni started sooo eep!  
> I'm more active on Tumblr during the waiting times, so if you want feel free to follow me there!  
> http://skribblie.tumblr.com/  
> song i was listening to while writing ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bfr6_Wq--8
> 
> OH and I don't know much about Underfell, So some things are made up, hope y'all like what I came up with!

* * *

 

 

Sans didn’t have ears. For crying out loud he was a skeleton. But he was sure that if he did have any, it would be adjacent to his cheek bones where the wind whipped and nicked his bones. The laws of underground physics were in his opinion, easy to understand, but nevertheless he always had the trouble of explaining how it worked. His specialty was in theory, not practical. So he never truly appreciated the wind down in the underground. He hated the way they felt against his bones, creating quiet whistles through the hollow of his eyes and whispering nonsense in his ears. Sometimes about the resets. Sometimes about his brother. And today it was about the new found stranger who bore the same name as his brother.

He glanced up at Papyrus. He appeared shorter than his own brother. Probably because his own brother wore fucking heels. Stupid, wretched, pointy heels. It made him taller than he actually was. So for that sole reason alone, Sans appreciated this skeleton for wearing normal flat boots. It felt nice, not having to feel so dwarfed by another skeleton. He was still tall, yes, but Sans leveled himself as he trotted next to the skeleton, his head bobbing up and down in rhythm below the other’s shoulders. The wind continued its murmurs and he brushed them away.

“So here’s our woods.”

Papyrus nodded looking up at the canopy of snow that enveloped the long branches. He didn’t say anything else, much to Sans’s surprise, and he continued on. “That’s Boss’s sentry.”

He shook his head to the right where a sentry painted golden stood, grand and tall. Papyrus stared.

“WOWIE!!!” he shrieked, snapping out of the trance the sentry had sucked him into. Sans rolled his eyes.

“WOWIE SANS THIS IS AMAZING!! WHO IS THIS ‘BOSS?’ I MUST MEET THEM! TRULY, TO CREATE A SENTRY OF SUCH DAZZLE IS A MONSTER WORTHY OF BEING THE ROYAL GUARD! SANS YOU MUST INTRODUCE ME TO THEM! OF COURSE IT IS NOT AS GREAT AS MINE, BUT IT WILL DO!”

Sans chuckled and gave the ecstatic skeleton a dismissive wave of the hand.

“Nah, he’s not that great, you wouldn’t want to see him anyway. You wouldn’t find him very humerus.”

Sans paused, waiting for the reaction. He held his breathe, hands antsy. Papyrus immediately turned, putting his hands on the hips.

“SANS! WAS THAT A PUN?”

“… maybe?”

“GAH! THAT WAS TERRI-BONE!”

Papyrus shut his sockets tight, and sans stared as if he had witnessed the craziest thing in the world.

Papyrus dared not to move, his body stilling as soon as he spat out the awful pun. He figured, if this sans was so similar to his brother, perhaps he also loved awful puns?

Sans wasn’t sure how to react. He expected back lash, maybe anger, possibly the skeleton ignoring him. But he received a reply that blew his mind out. His hands had stopped their twitching and by the looks of Papyrus’s face, he was guessing he was smiling his soul out.

Papyrus hopped a little, unable to contain his excitement. The other sans was smiling! It stretched slowly, raising the corners of his sockets to a little loop and Papyrus couldn’t stop the excited noises from jumping out.

“YOU’RE SMILING! “

“I am? I guess it wasn’t so terri-bone then, huh?” he cackled, shrugging his shoulders in the rhythm of Papyrus’s laughter.

Maybe this skeleton wasn’t so bad after all.

“Hey come on, you’re lagging behind the tour.”

 

*

 

Sans showed him the door to the ruins. They couldn’t get through. Sans told him a story of the lady behind the door, who loved making crude puns more than he did. Papyrus asked if he told this to his brother. He shrugged. He told him his brother wasn’t interested. Papyrus pouted, if a skeleton could do so.

“He would be interested! If Sans told me something like that, well, actually maybe not, I don’t think I can handle all the puns.” Papyrus scowled lightly. Sans mused.

Leaning forward, he knocked on the door firmly, “knock knock.”

Papyrus smiled when he heard a soft, sweet voice respond back with “who’s there?”

“Robin.”

“Robin who?”

“Robbing you!”

The voice behind the door howled in laughter. Papyrus did not quite get the joke.

“Knock knock!”

Sans raised a socket, glancing at Papyrus for him to listen. “Who’s there?”

“Cockadoodle.”

“Cockadoodle who?”

“Not a Cockadoodle-who you shit, cockadoodle-doo!”

The two erupted into mirth, Sans grabbing his skull in an effort to stay standing. The lady behind the door made  a gurgling noise, before gasping for air, a thump resonating through.

“You’re really proud of that one huh?” Sans finally managed to say.

“It’s better than yours shit head.” She replied.

As the two exchanged conversations, Papyrus could only stare in intrigue and horror. He had never heard such extreme language before; no one in Snowdin had spoken like that, and Sans definitely never made such crude jokes. He wondered if it was only the sans on this timeline that spoke like this, or if his brother spoke like this too. It made him think and it made him scared that perhaps he didn’t know his brother that well as he thought he did.

Parting away, Papyrus made a noise, prompting Sans to look at him.

“She’s very… Nice?”

“Yeah, she is isn’t she? The nicest one around here anyway.” He paused. “How is she in your timeline?”

“I told you Sans, I don’t know.”

  
  
They made a short cut to the falls, the charcoal walls of the caves glinting in the red and yellow crystal’s light as it shone their path. Sans pointed to the field of whispering roses, heavily armed with thorns. Papyrus bent down to listen to one.

“You’re a mistake.”

He jolted back, bumping into another flower.

“You shouldn’t exist.”

His soul lurched, spinning in a frenzy.

“Wha- why –“

He flinched at the sharp snort behind him, Sans grinning madly.

“I guess you don’t have them where you come from huh? Whispering roses; the most detestable thing to encounter in the falls. Monsters used to whisper their thoughts in here.”

He tapped one beside him, making it swing side to side and echo his words back at him in a hushed whisper.

“But staying trapped underground does things to you. It makes you bitter. It makes you mad. By the time I was alive and walking, these roses were full of hate and nothing else.”

The grin looped, his expression sullen and cold. He crooked his neck up, sight glancing at the very tops of the wide cavern. Papyrus followed his gaze.

“You see that cliff there?”

It jutted out from the side of the cave, high above their heads, reaching the tops of the illusionary yellow stars. Pointing upwards to the fantasy of skies, it loomed in its sheer  height of terror, dark rocks  protruding menacingly.

“The cliff?”

“Yeah. After walking through a whole field of roses that tell you to kill yourself, what do you think they do when they see this cliff?”

It didn’t quite register Papyrus what Sans was trying to say. He looked at him, thoroughly confused. “They… Go up the cliff to be closer to the stars?”

A ghost of a laugh echoed through, the roses whispering back and forth throughout. Papyrus didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t like this feeling.

Sans pivoted to his stare, shoulder hunched and grin still there.

“Buddy… What do you think you’re sitting on? _What do you think helps these roses grow?”_

Heart dropping to the pit of his soul, trembling hands scraped against the dark soil until his gloves took a handful and raised it up to see better.

Faint, but there it was.

Dust.

Sans continued, watching Papyrus turn about, frantically grabbing at the soil,

“they come, hear the voices saying its no use, there’s no hope. They go up the cliff and when they fall…

… They fall.”

Papyrus looked down. He looked down at himself. The black soot covered his armor, mixed with the dust of monsters he never had the chance to meet. He looked around him, sockets already full of tears.

Everywhere he looked, he could only see the roses, stretching and stretching. Like a virus. It seemed to go on and on and on… and… on.

He glanced up at the cliff, imagining a monster walk up there, soul heavy and vision blurry. He though he saw them fall, down , down, and Papyrus closed his eyes, feeling them turn into dust.

_Unfair._

Tears visibly stroking his bones, Papyrus reached out to the flower he had earlier bumped into. It whispered back the last few words it heard, “they fall. They fall.”

Papyrus tilted the flower slightly, and spoke in hushed tones, then pulled back and stood up, not bothering to brush the dark ashen dirt and dust off him.

Sans gave him a bemused look. “What did you say to the flower?”

“Why don’t you listen?”

Sans bent forward, grinning.

“You’re amazing.”

The grin vanished, replaced with confusion and irritation. He angled his head to look at Papyrus slightly tilted to brush a look that said ‘what are you doing. What are you trying to prove.’ As if he had never heard those words before, never been praised before, like those words were foreign to him.

“Was that meant to be a joke? Cuz that’s pretty sick.”

Papyrus mumbled a reply. He told him about the gentle echo flowers, the blue light of the caves back home and the sweet scent that wafted through the air. Sans listens.

 

*

 

“We should get going.”

They get up, and brushing past the ruby tainted roses, Papyrus smiles softly, the flowers whispering back his words. From one to the other the roses pass along a story, following them as they walk out. They whisper;

‘it’s beautiful there’

‘the air is so sweet’

‘we have hope’

‘we have our dreams’

‘we wish to see the stars’

‘I wish you could see it’

And sans picks up his pace.

Papyrus thought he saw a sunlight flower in the distance, tangled with the mesh of roses, but it disappeared just as quickly as he saw it.

 

In their walks they meet a fish that reminded Papyrus of the fish that he knew. Her eyes were wild and her grin was ominous. Storming up to the two she glowered over Sans who responded with a wink. She growls. Whipping her head to Papyrus, he couldn’t help but look away in her burning stare. It was intense, like Undyne’s, but it felt different. It felt so different.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

Papyrus fidgeted and Sans took a step forward, wearing a trademark lazy grin.

“Tourist from new home. Caught any humans today?”

Distracted, she turned to tower over sans, who didn’t appear to be threatened.

“You’ll know when I have their head –” she summoned a blood red spear “ – as my spear’s new decoration.”

And she went her way, hair blazing red and fists curled to the edge. She stalked off. Papyrus couldn’t help but shudder. He turned to Sans who had continued his walk.

“Was that Undyne?” Papyrus whispered. He glanced back, watching the figure fade away into the darkness.

“Yeah. She’s crazy, I don’t recommend making friends with her.”

Papyrus’s shoulders sagged. “But Undyne’s so cool.”

“Not in here she isn’t. I’m guessing she’s popular where you come from.”

Papyrus looked down. “She’s the best.”

 

 

“Tell me more about your timeline.”

The two sat by the blood red piano, Papyrus tapping at the notes. The notes were quiet, almost silent, and he strained himself to hear the haunting melody. He stopped and looked to sans who slid down the wall and settled to a comfortable position, mustard bottle already out.

“Well, there’s so much to say! Where should I start?”

“Your home. Tell me about your home.”

Papyrus hummed. He sat next to sans, who stiffened slightly.

“Well, like you and your brother I live in Snowdin. There’s a beautifully decorated tree in the middle with many presents all around! Our house is colorful everyday, and inside is very warm! It looks like yours, but I regret to say, less tidy.” Papyrus sighed, “San’s is always leaving one sock in the living room. That lazy bones!” 

“Mm. Tell me about your brother.”

“Sans?” Papyrus thoughtfully scratched his chin. He smiled. “My brother’s round and soft! He’s a great brother. He’s very much like you actually! Take away that fascinating golden tooth of yours and your color choices and you are my brother!”

The red eyed skeleton fell silent and looked off to the side. Papyrus wondered if he had said anything wrong. He decided to continue, “he loves pun, and of course, my spaghetti! He used to be very tired and never recalibrate his puzzles, but he’s starting to be much happier, and of course, I the great papyrus am to thank!” he laughed, filling up the stone walls with his voice.

Sans said nothing. Papyrus made the noise of clearing his throat. “Are you okay?”

“Your brother’s lucky to have you.”

Papyrus beamed. “OF COURSE!” His voice lowered, “but I’m lucky to have him as well.”

Papyrus noticed Sans had curled up into a ball, his head shoved deeper into the nest of his arms and the puff of his jacket. Papyrus had seen this before, seen this as he stood a foot away from himself, watching the legs curl up and head slump as he cried in silence. That’s how he saw himself anyway. Always a foot away, seeing himself cry on to the cold kitchen floor and feel empty and helpless. Watching Sans coil into a tight ball, Papyrus felt as if he was looking at a reflection.

With only the intention of comfort, Papyrus leaned in and wrapped his arms around the smaller skeleton. Sans immediately pushed him away, eyes flashing in warning he was already standing up, left hand twitchy and skull beading sweat. Papyrus backed off, raising his hands.

“My apologies! I thought you needed a hug!”

“Don’t ever touch me.”

He didn’t drop his stance, left hand still out and fingers jerking in random shots, he glowered at Papyrus, watching him slowly stand. Papyrus gulped wrapping his arms to hug himself. The expression Sans wore was unnatural, full of hate, anger and something else that he couldn’t quite catch. It scared him, it made his bones shudder and his knees quake. Sans never looked at him like that. Sans always smiled, always joked around and looked at him with mischievous yet warm, lazy eyes. But Papyrus had to remind himself this was not his sans. Not his brother. He wasn’t warm, he wasn’t the brother he knew and loved.

“I won’t do it again.”

Papyrus averted his eyes to the side. He didn’t feel so welcome anymore. He felt out of place in the cold dark caves and the crimson stare.

“good.”

Sans slipped his hand back into his pocket and walked out of the side room of the waterfalls, continuing on the tour without his tourist. Papyrus didn’t dare follow. He continued to stand in the room, once again biting back the tears that were brimming in his sockets. He didn’t want to be here anymore. He hated this place. He hated the rage and fear that everyone seemed to be consumed by, the hostility and resentment. The violence in the air.

He wanted to go back home.

“You coming or what?”

Sans poked his head out from the entrance, watching Papyrus curiously. Papyrus frantically nodded, hoping his face didn’t appear to be wet.

 

*

 

“I should go back.”

Settled with legs dangling out to death itself, Sans didn’t let go of his gaze at the core in front of him. He allowed it’s mechanical hum swallow the silence, watching the molten lava shift and flow below him.

“San’s might get worried.”

This time he turned, watching the orange light play with Papyrus’s skull.

“Why do you care?”

“Because he’s my brother.”

Staring at each other, the core seemed so much closer to San’s ears. He turned, nodding slightly. He took his bottle out and watched it fall, quickly consumed by the depths below.

“Okay.”

Papyrus nodded, slowly getting up. he knelt down, the flat of his gloved hands touching the floor. Sans raptly watched  the floor beneath the skeleton’s fingers grow, a circle of light swirling violently until it was big enough for one to call it a ‘portal’.

“That’s how you came here huh?”

Papyrus nodded. He looked at Sans, his jaw jerking up slightly to give a small smile.

“I’ll see you later Sans.”

He didn’t reply.

Papyrus jumped in, and the portal closed after him, swallowing him up like the lava swallowing up the mustard bottle.

Sans didn’t move from his spot. Still staring at where the portal had been just a moment ago. He closed his eyes.

_This is very new._

Sans looked to his side, a white looming mass bobbing by his side.

_I’ve never seen him before._

Sans looked into the distance of the darkness, careful not to move an inch. He didn’t want to fall into the core.

_Perhaps… Perhaps he’s what we’ve been looking for?_

_“_ How do you know?”

The white mass twirled to be in front of him, scarred face and pale grin prominent as it had always been.

_I don’t_

Sans opened his eyes, his body still where he left it, a step away from falling into the core. Sans muttured beneath his breathe, slowly getting up.

“Gaster… You never know anything.”


	10. Kansas is back with its copyright, run!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm awfully sorry for the super duper late and short update ;-; please forgive me! Uni kinda had me on a knot and I was struggling to write fullstop. Lacked the motivation T-T  
> But here it is! please enjoy!  
> also, amazing burdentale art by amazing people!!; http://skribblie.tumblr.com/post/140536101652/skeleton-hunting-fanatic-heres-a-scene and http://fonyxion.tumblr.com/post/138855463461/he-wont-be-sad-anymore-burdentale-belongs-to

* * *

 

 

 

Gaster was, needless to say, delighted.

Ecstatic, the black mass of a monster jiggled like a moldsmal and rushed towards Papyrus, almost covering him entirely as soon as Papyrus exited the portal.

_What did you see?_

Papyrus laughed at the energy beaming from his friend, happy to see a friendly face once again.  Clapping two dusty gloves, Papyrus gave a detailed brief of what he saw, the difference of their worlds. Gaster nodded time to time, fully engrossed.

_A timeline where there is no hope?_

Papyrus nodded quietly, his energy quickly draining from his face. He didn’t have anything else to add. There wasn’t much to say. Silently he hoped that his words towards the flowers made at least one monster smile.

_What about you? The other you?_

“I HAVEN’T SEEN HIM. I SHALL MEET HIM TOMORROW!”

Gaster nodded.

_You should go papyrus. You did well._

There was a slight frown on his cracked face, flinching at the corners of his hollow smile and sunken eyes. It beckoned explaining, but Papyrus couldn’t find it in him to ask. It felt as if it was not his place to ask, and his bones groaned at him to go back home. Waving a smile and a nod, Papyrus allowed himself to drop, opening his eyes in the kitchen floor.

 

 

The false pretence of a smile dropped, the corners curling in its ends. His heart felt as if it dropped, plummeted as a matter of fact, and in its place a hollow vortex had opened up to beat for him. There was a rush, a strange rush, and it surged through him, reminding him that he was a single monster who tried to play with the world’s rules.

When he tried to get up, a wave of nausea rolled over him and the skeleton stumbled, his weight thumping by the fridge. Papyrus stood in place, heaving. He hadn’t realized how tired he was. How EXACTLY tired he was. He looked down at his legs, watching it tremble and knock knees with one other. His soul quivered under the weight of time and space, trying its best to maintain its form, maintain the skeleton to stay together. Papyrus sighed, closing his eyes and rolling his head to the adjacent wall.

_‘It’s okay. I’m Okay.’_

Papyrus pushed himself off, dragging his heavy boots up the stairs. Carelessly pushing the door, the skeleton dropped to his bed, muffling in the sponge of his pillows. He couldn’t be bothered. Couldn’t be bothered getting changed, closing the door, nothing.

He just wanted to sleep forever.

 

 

*

 

 

Subtlety was Sans. That was what he what he remembered anyway. Somewhere in the past, behind all the resets and the false memories that he could conjure that easily blurred behind the lines, someone had once told him he was a fairytale. Delightful and fun, but dark and mysterious. Sans replied if he was a fairy tale, then they were a guidebook. Subtle, that’s what he preferred. The straight and bold difference sans was between a fairy tale and who he was that; fairytales weren’t fucking alive. They didn’t have eyes, eyes that watched the tall skeleton struggle his way up the stairs, clothes dirty and black. They didn’t have ears, ears that listened to the harsh breathing and heavy thumps of tired feet. They didn’t have a heart, a heart that  burned in worry and compassion, a heart that made him stand up slowly and follow his brother. A fairytale didn’t have a soul. A soul that watched over his brother who lay sprawled on top of his race car bed, messy and smelling of charcoal and damp dirt.

“What have you been up to Papy…”

He fully knew this was not what Papyrus would normally do. He knew Papyrus too well for this. Reset after reset, and even before that, Papyrus was always clean. Always diligent. Always on time.

But that wasn’t today.

When Sans had woke that morning, Papyrus wasn’t there. Worry was a fleeting thought, as papyrus sometimes woke up extra early to scout the underground for the human. It was strange, yes Sans wasn’t going to deny that.  Monotonous day to thought and process had kicked in and he sat, wandering when Papyrus would join in. but the mechanic element of his brain continued, and he was on his way to his sentry.

But the worry grew and like a time bomb it exploded.

When Sans turned his bones outside for his sentry duty, Papyrus wasn’t there. He wasn’t at the woods, he wasn’t at his post, and he wasn’t at the waterfall. He checked the garbage dump, and even hotland. He swept the entirety of new home.

But he wasn’t there.

And it was there Sans lost it.

It felt as if the whole world had suddenly caved into his soul, violently grinding and crushing his being. Winding his body up with shaking arms, Sans forced himself to breathe, unnecessary or not. He had to regain control of his body. He had to.

But the mind was never strong over the sense of empowerment and dread, and the longer he sat in the alley of new home, the more thoughts of horror poured in.

_Maybe papyrus fell into the core_

_Maybe someone fought papyrus and he fell into dust_

_Maybe the human arrived early and killed him off_

_Maybe papyrus never existed_

 

A muffled scream was all the monsters heard as they passed by the alley. If anyone had peeked in, they wouldn’t have seen a skeleton crouched by the wall, cradling his head with his bony fingers,

For he was in his room in the same position, scratching at his sockets with grinded teeth and legs pressed tight against his ribs. The skeleton viciously clawed at the empty sockets, chipping them little by little as he screamed and cried.

Poor little skeleton

He couldn’t handle it very well.

He couldn’t handle it fullstop.

The thought flashed by again,

_What if he doesn’t exist_

And it encouraged him to scratch harder.

Because the thought didn’t seem impossible anymore.

It was funny what a single anomaly could do. With its unpredictable actions and unforgiving ability to do whatever they pleased, the world was only in the palm of their hands.

 

 

That was how Gaster disappeared after all.

 

 

Waking up in the heat of hotland with his brother by his side, Sans saw that the house they once lived in no longer existed. It just wasn’t there anymore. Gone. Poof, like a leaf against molten lava, it vanished and to his surprise, it had never existed in the first place. Wondering out to where the lab was, the empty facility invited him with an empty mouth, the interiors cold and silent. The papers were still there, and machines were turned off. He asked around;

_“Do you know where Gaster went?”_

_“Who?”_

And that was that.

Papyrus didn’t remember Gaster, and Sans forced himself to accept the reality he had woken up in. Memories were replaced, Papyrus claiming it was just the two of them, wandering around in search of home. Despite lacking the said memories, Sans had nodded, like a mother reassuring their child that she was okay, and they made their way into Snowdin, sleeping at the inn and working at Grillbys.

Gaster slowly faded to obscurity in San’s mind since then, pushed into a safe and forgotten. Some nights he woke up, a familiar face staring back. Other nights he wondered if his memories of him were even real.

And that was what sans thought of Papyrus.

With resets swarmed with one on the other, there was never one true memory, a one whole truth that properly told the tale. So maybe…

Maybe his brother wasn’t real after all.

Maybe he made him up, because he needed someone to hold, to guide his path in the right direction. Someone to keep him standing, to give him purpose and a reason to smile. Someone to love him.

And someone for him to love.

Gasping for air and comprehension, Sans took one last scratch as his kull before falling to his side, hollow skull jolting against the carpet. With empty heart, he silently stared at the white fragments of his skull, scattered loosely all around him. He decided to lie down. Do nothing. for how long? Sans didn’t care. He had no care in the world. He could lie down for as long as it mattered. If he could, he’d lie down until he turned into dust.

 

 

It was dark out when Papyrus came back. A clatter down the stairs, Sans stiffened awake, the silence breaking into an echo. Urging his body to follow his command, sans got up to his elbows, dragging himself across the door to his ajar door.  Seeing papyrus, sans felt relief pour out, his blue soul humming quietly.

He was real.

But it lasted shortly.

 

 

A thought skipped by his head, a thought that asked what if Papyrus had gone cooking with Undyne to be in such a dirty mess of charcoal, but Sans had checked and knew that wasn’t the answer. Getting up with a huff and following his brother to his room. He watched the tall skeleton groan and fall into his bed, falling asleep immediately. Sans stood by the door for a while, then kneeled by the bedside, watching his brother’s rythemic breathing.

He noticed Papyrus had changed the colors on his costume, the ruby red boots and gloves now Prussian blue to match his newly acquainted scarf. Sans wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Seeing Papyrus wear anything else felt so weird, so surreal. It felt as if he was dreaming. It hurt too. Did papyrus no longer want to wear it in this timeline? Was his hard work no longer needed?

Sans brushed the negative thoughts away. No, that didn’t matter. What was important was that his brother was here. That he was safe. No matter how much he changed, outfit or appearance. At least he was here. That he was real.

Warily sans brushed through Papyrus’s smooth scalp.

“Papyrus…. What have you gotten yourself into…”

He rubbed at the dark stains on his battle body, and was surprised that it didn’t come off. He sighed. Papyrus would be so fussy and mad when wakes up.

With another heartfelt sigh, the skeleton carefully removed his brother’s gloves, setting them gently aside. He moved to his boots, taking them off one by one, until something caught his eyes.

It shouldn’t have been so hard to spot. He blamed the darkness. Only illuminated by the light beaming outside in the living room, Sans could easily recognize what it was. The texture, its movement, _the smell._ He was familiar with it. He knew it like the back of his hand.

 

 

Dust

 

 

Monster dust.

 

 

It speckled down onto the carpet, floating gently into a small heap.

Shaky, bony hands reached down, grabbing and rubbing it between his fingers. He didn’t drop the boot he was holding. He didn’t want to wake papyrus up. Or maybe he did.

 

“Papyrus… Papyrus where… where did you…”

 

He choked out, voice tiny and afraid.

What was dust doing with his brother? What was his brother doing with dust? _why was there dust on his brother why was his brother walking on dust who were these dust who were these monsters that were once alive who died did the human already comewhatwasgoingonwhat’shappening –_

 

Sans had to compose himself.

 

Resuming his activity, sans placed the boots outside. He had to clean them. There was no way he was going to leave them there. Tucking the gloves also into his pocket, he shifted to cover Papyrus in his duvet. He tried one last time to scratch the black smudges off the battle body armor, and then closed the door behind him.

Taking the boots in his hold, he took a step, then another, and knocked against the cold door of the lab.

“W-who is it? I-I’m busy a-at the moment I c- can’t accept g-g-guests!”

“It’s me. Sans.”

The silence did not last too long thankfully. There was a click and the door hummed open, Alphys standing in the cool interior with a small, familiar smile.

“Sans! What are you doing here? Did you come to watch mew m-“

Her eyes strayed to the boots, scratching her chin and pointing at them.

“W-what are those for?”

Sans allowed his smile to slack, welcoming the cool breeze of air conditioners once he stepped in. he slumped by the wall, lifting the boots up.

“Alphys… You still got the machine? The one that can tell the dust of the fallen?”

Sans wasn’t sure how else he would’ve approached the subject. Perhaps he should have gone in for subtlety. Alphys wasn’t quite the direct person she used to be. But he had forgotten and sans mentally kicked his noggin for it.

Alphys came to a complete stop at his request. Her eyes widened and her jaws snapped shut, tightening at the edges. Her body tense, muscles sprung like a coil, her tail curled over her exposed toes and claws scraping at the polished ground. Her breathe was held, and she stared at Sans, deer caught in the headlights, sweat slowly pouring out of her sudden pale face.

“I – Uh – S-Sans what do you…”

Sans sighs, trying to appear relaxed. Truth be told he really wasn’t. But it was the only way to calm Alphys down.

“Come on Alphys. We worked on that machine together. Don’t tell me the work Asgore gave you is suddenly getting into your head and scrambling your eggs about.”

He winked, and in his expected relief, Alphys loosened up, her shoulders slouching once more and the giddy small grin back.

“A-a-ah yes! Sorry Sans… I’ve just been so busy you know? I just forgot…”

She looked to the side, nervously adjusting the glasses that slid down her snout.

“T-This way.”

Alphys paused, turning around slightly to look at Sans. She took a gulp. “S-Sans, you wouldn’t… I… When we go down there, can you promise to understand? Things aren’t the way it used to be down there.”

Sans clings on to the dusty boots. He nods, and he knows she understands.

He’s done his share.

 

 

 

He held his breathe. He held his soul tight. It felt his entire being was being gravitated to his core, chilling away from the edges of his body, as if it was afraid it’ll be sucked away. He wondered if this was what they felt before melting away into beings not their own.

He followed her quiet trail, the taps of their feet echoing throughout the lab.

He was a skeleton. He couldn’t shiver. He didn’t feel the chill. But rattle his bones he did, careful sockets darting left to right in wary.

One stood tall, it’s single eye staring through him. Another looked at him from afar, mouth gaping open and hissing. In the distance bounded a large – what appeared to be – a dog, the gaping hole of its face drooling and multitude of legs tripping after one another. Sans took a cautious step back, right hand slipping out of his pocket.

“I-i-it’s o-okay! They won’t hurt you!”

She scrambled between them, two arms raised and moving in a gentle wave,

“E-easy now! Friend, okay? He’s a friend.”

It wagged its large tail about, craning its neck about to look at Sans.  Body flat to the floor, it crept along the floor stopping at his feet to stare up, tail still wagging.  It gave a gurgled whine.

Sans patted the large dog, biting back the nauseous curl around his empty stomach.

“Alphys… What – “

He choked, daring her to look at him. She looked to her feet, eyes cast low.

“The experiment… It wasn’t what we thought. You left before we could get started on any tests.” She looked to him, and he could see the frustration, the hate, “You left me to do it all by myself.”

It was sans’s turn to look away. The amalgamation of dogs lay curled at his feet, panting lightly. The curl of guilt rose above his chest and he fell down to his knees, burying his face in the white fur. It whined some more.

Alphys stuttered, “S-sans I’m s-sorry! O-oh I made things worse didn’t I?”

Sans shook his head, skull still buried under the fur. It stuck into his sockets and his nose but he didn’t care.

There was a patter of feet and it stopped next to him. A nudge and he turned to see the big eyed monster look at him, its beak turning left and right. It spoke. It sounded like three people were trying to speak at the same time.

“W-wha?”

It repeated once more. This time he caught the words.

It’s not your fault It’s okay We have hope.

Sans swallowed the lump he felt in his throat, though it be not there. With shaky feet like a newborn deer he forced himself up, the cold awkward lump now in his heart.

“Alphys… Where’s the machine?”

“Oh! T-t-this way!”

Their footsteps echoed in through the cold interiors of the corridor. He tried to ignore this feeling. This feeling of despair and false hope the walls seemed to seep.

“Here it is.”

Sweaty claws pulled at the white sheet. Dust expelling out in waves in one swift swipe of the cloth. Sans grimaced. I had been a while since the machine was every used. It was old, but no older than he. It was something the King had desperately asked for, something else that Gaster had failed to make. A machine made to console the past.

The past where there was too much dust to distinguish whose dust was whose.

Sans brushed the thoughts away, approaching the machine and flicking a switch. It purred back to life, lights blaring back on to stare at him back. Alphys grimaced.

She hated the machine, hated the way it seemed to be alive, glaring down at them, knowing that the monsters have once again screwed up. It judged her, she knew it did. She could feel it.

“W-why do you need it Sans? Did someone… Die?”

Sans shrugged, shaking the blue boot inside the glass cylinder.

“Who knows?”

The dust fell in small clumps; San’s catching Alphys in the corner of his sockets shaking. He could hear her asking, but it was too much to explain, and he didn’t really feel it in his bones to answer. He didn’t really know the answers after all.

Closing the machine, it whirred, spinning the dust about faster and faster, flashing lots across the dim lab. Once it was done, Sans couldn’t find his words. Neither could Alphys.

“My… Son..?”

Sans twisted to see the deformed Snowdrake’s mother, mouth sagging to the left and eyes giving a smile of a Vegetoid. She looked to him, and he wasn’t sure what her expression held.

“Is.. My son.. Dead?”

It was Alphys who interjected with a flurry of sharking arms.

“No, No! No Mrs. Snowdrake, your son is fine! We saw him in the monitor a few moments ago, remember? It can’t be him!”

There was doubt in her heart, he could feel it. But she nodded nonetheless in Alphy’s relief.

“There must be something wrong with the machine. It’s showing all the names of everyone that’s alive.”

And it sure was. Burgerpants, nice cream man, a couple of Moldmals the inn keeper and the monster that absolutely hated boxes to san’s confusion.

“They look different too.”

Sans nodded along. Indeed, it was as if they were looking at a warped perception of the monsters. They looked angry, upset, and more than anything else; tired. It was scary. Like looking into a mirror.

Alphys tapped her claws against her chin, frowning. “Is this… a joke?”

“Maybe.”

But his mind was elsewhere. Could it be anomaly? Was it somehow using his brother to bring back the dust of the fallen from another timeline? If so, how and why? What was it trying to do? Was his timeline finally breaking apart, perhaps colliding into another thanks to the anomaly? What was the –

“Who’s boots are those sans?”

Effortlessly he smiled to her, his heart dropping to the bottom of his gut.

“Huh? Uh, I dunno. The boot store?”

“The boot store?”

“Yeah. Thought it looked BOOTiful, but you know, they BOOTed me out before I could ask questions.”

Alphys scowled slightly, but he could see the corner of her lips twitching ever so slightly upwards.

“C-come on Sans, you need to tell me! This is important!”

“Welp, I guess I’ll have to force my way into the boot store then. See ya Al.”

For a skeleton who did his best to never run, that was exactly what he did, running back the way they came from and turning the corner.

“W-wait!”

The dog amalgamate followed right at his heels, Alphys not too far behind. She watched the deformed monster round the corner and stop short, whining lightly in its gurgled tone.

“W-what’s the matter?”

It looked at her, tail wagging lightly. She looked. Sans was already gone.

 

 

 

Sans fell back into his bed in a huff, already sweating.

“I’m… never running again.”

But as much as he wanted to sleep, he forced himself up, teleporting into his lab. There was no time to rest. By the looks of it, the anomaly was already affecting this timeline to a greater extent than he had imagined. It was clearly affecting his brother the most and he couldn’t abide that any longer.

Taking his jacket off, he pulled on the makeshift lab coat he had found earlier in the dumps while looking for Papyrus. It was worn out, colors washed out from too many days in the sun. Looking closer it had previously been a bright orange, but now it was an ashen apricot, pallid and sickly. It was practically covered in pockets, some originally there, and many sewn on as an extra. He liked it. Finally he could keep more ketchup bottles than he could normally hold.

Settling down on the ground, he lay the papers down and fished a pen out.

He had to start now. The actions of the anomaly were still unknown, and if he didn’t do something soon, it could take away everything he cared about in a split second. He had to find the anomaly, track it down. Find a way to contain it.

 

Find a way to control it.


End file.
